Last weekend I had the great pleasure of attending two of the three shows on Julies house concert mini-tour. Two of these were perks for donations to the Terroir Kickstarter campaign; the third was arranged afterwards and funded by local donations.
The performers were Julie, guitarist Tim Motzer, and all-round artiste extraordinaire Dejha Ti on live visuals. Julie played her trusty 4-string Lakland Glaub and Tim a baritone guitar; both were surrounded by multiple pedalboards and other assorted electronica. Dejhas live visuals were projected on three-dimensional spandex screens. The material was a set of highly improvised performances of composed pieces -- composed being somewhat loosely defined here -- including several cuts from the soon-to-be released Terroir album, others that she or they had worked up even more recently, a cover of King Crimsons One Time, and a healthy dose of purely spontaneous composition for good measure.
And now to the review. I could write pages and pages about this, but I will keep it brief and to the point: These were two of the most mind-blowing sets of live music I have ever experienced. No fooling around. This was not about bass playing or guitar playing; it was about the creative manipulation of sound and space -- yet always in the service of musicality rather than at its expense. I went into the shows thinking about Julie as one of my favorite bassists; I came out thinking of her as one of my favorite musicians.
Most of the tunes were the same across the two nights, but if you werent really paying attention you might not have even noticed given how differently each was interpreted from one night to the next. And, after the second show, while we were all just hanging around, she played the Terroir album for us in its entirety. The album, unsurprisingly, is great, and you should go pre-order your copy right now, but what struck me most in that context were how different the studio tracks were from the live performances we had just heard of them.
Ill admit that I wasnt sure how I was going to feel about the visuals part of the show -- I often find light shows to distract from my focus on the music -- but Dejhas visuals turned out to add a wonderful third dimension to the performance. I often close my eyes when Im in serious music-listening mode, but almost never did during these sets. The band really is a trio, and warrants the name Slick-Motzer-Ti. (Another good name would be "Excuse Me, Have You Seen My Brain?")
Fortunately for all you folks who didnt get to see this, there are two pieces of very good news. First, the three shows were all recorded -- with four video cameras (including headstock cams) and five-track audio (four individually miked amps -- Tim and Julie each used two -- plus an ambient room mike). As I understand it, their plan is to mix and release complete audio recordings of all three shows (plus the sound-check mini-sets), as well as a video compiled from selected parts of the various shows. Second, this little mini-tour was not a one-time thing. Theyve got big plans for this project and will be taking it on the road in the not-too-distant future. Stay tuned.
The performers were Julie, guitarist Tim Motzer, and all-round artiste extraordinaire Dejha Ti on live visuals. Julie played her trusty 4-string Lakland Glaub and Tim a baritone guitar; both were surrounded by multiple pedalboards and other assorted electronica. Dejhas live visuals were projected on three-dimensional spandex screens. The material was a set of highly improvised performances of composed pieces -- composed being somewhat loosely defined here -- including several cuts from the soon-to-be released Terroir album, others that she or they had worked up even more recently, a cover of King Crimsons One Time, and a healthy dose of purely spontaneous composition for good measure.
And now to the review. I could write pages and pages about this, but I will keep it brief and to the point: These were two of the most mind-blowing sets of live music I have ever experienced. No fooling around. This was not about bass playing or guitar playing; it was about the creative manipulation of sound and space -- yet always in the service of musicality rather than at its expense. I went into the shows thinking about Julie as one of my favorite bassists; I came out thinking of her as one of my favorite musicians.
Most of the tunes were the same across the two nights, but if you werent really paying attention you might not have even noticed given how differently each was interpreted from one night to the next. And, after the second show, while we were all just hanging around, she played the Terroir album for us in its entirety. The album, unsurprisingly, is great, and you should go pre-order your copy right now, but what struck me most in that context were how different the studio tracks were from the live performances we had just heard of them.
Ill admit that I wasnt sure how I was going to feel about the visuals part of the show -- I often find light shows to distract from my focus on the music -- but Dejhas visuals turned out to add a wonderful third dimension to the performance. I often close my eyes when Im in serious music-listening mode, but almost never did during these sets. The band really is a trio, and warrants the name Slick-Motzer-Ti. (Another good name would be "Excuse Me, Have You Seen My Brain?")
Fortunately for all you folks who didnt get to see this, there are two pieces of very good news. First, the three shows were all recorded -- with four video cameras (including headstock cams) and five-track audio (four individually miked amps -- Tim and Julie each used two -- plus an ambient room mike). As I understand it, their plan is to mix and release complete audio recordings of all three shows (plus the sound-check mini-sets), as well as a video compiled from selected parts of the various shows. Second, this little mini-tour was not a one-time thing. Theyve got big plans for this project and will be taking it on the road in the not-too-distant future. Stay tuned.
