Big Ears, Day Three

Sometimes it's fun to push yourself a little, test the boundaries of your stamina and endurance and see how far you can go.  We know it's fun, because that's exactly what we did today.

At one low-energy point of the day, while walking back from a performance at The Standard in the pouring rain, making that 0.9-mile, mostly uphill hike from the venue to the next performance, the thought crossed our mind that since we were going to be walking right past our hotel anyway, instead of going to the show feeling all grungy in our wet clothes, why not stop in the hotel, change out of those wet clothes into something dry and comfortable, go to the hotel bar and order a negroni, get on social media and tell anyone who asks that "Sure, we went to all of the performances."  Who would know?

But we didn't.  We figured we didn't come all this way, spend money for an all-access VIP pass and a ritzy hotel right on the main strip, just to avoid hearing live music.  No, we came for the experience, damn it, and that's what we'll do, so we pushed on and despite looking like a pile of wet laundry, we found ourselves a seat in the fabulous Tennessee Theater for Diamonda Galas' incredible performance, and then - get this - walked right past the hotel again without stopping in, made the 0.9-mile trek back to the previous venue for a late-night EDM set, knowing full well that we'd just have to walk back again when it was all over, and watched a 90-minute performance by the stellar Four Tet.

But we've started this post with the end of the day.  We're tired and it's late, so here's just a brief listing of who we saw today and what we did.  We'll unpack the full experience in later posts.

We started the day with an ass-kicking performance by Arto Lindsey, who played angular, loud, dissonant guitar in some unclassifiable genre, backed only by break-neck drumming by Paal Nilssen-Love of Norway's The Thing (there's a lot of Norwegian musicians at this festival for some reason).  It was a kick in the ass to get the day started and it worked better than three cups of cappuccino.  It wasn't pretty, but it was fun and it felt good when it was over.

Next, we went to the opposite extreme.  British composer Jon Gibson performed in St. John's Cathedral, playing solo saxophone, then piano, then flute, then sax again. Each minimalist piece was lovely, meditative  and thought-provoking, and he even employed some circular breathing on the last piece.  It was not unlike meeting a very polite English clergyman, and discovering that he incidentally played world-class minimalist music on the side.  

The next performance was pure Americana  - banjo maestro Bela Fleck performing a set of bluegrass-tinged traditional songs with his wife, the banjo maestro Abigail Washburn.  They were backed by the string quartet Brooklyn Rider.  See?  I told you I was going to see Bela Fleck and Brooklyn Rider play together.

Next, it was back to St. John's Cathedral again, where John Medeski of Medeski Martin & Wood played a set of solo jazz piano.  It was a highlight of the day, not least because Medeski included not one, not two, but three Sun Ra songs in his set.

This was followed by more jazz piano, this time at the Bijou Theater and performed by Jason Moran, accompanied by master drummer Milford Graves. Another transcendent set.

Who has time to eat?  I'll eat when I'm dead.  But I did grab some shrimp rolls at a food truck and ate them while walking to the next performance, this time a loud, raw, confrontational set of political protest songs and a long rant by guitarist Marc Ribot and his band Ceramic Dog.  Very cool.

After Ribot, we were soothed again, this time by a lovely set of electronic music by Laurel Halo that ranged from ambient soundscapes to dreamy, meditative songs.

After the long walk in the rain alluded to at the beginning of this post, we saw legendary singer and pianist Diamanda Galas.  She sang, she screamed, she distorted her voice into unrecognizable, sometimes scary sounds, and we secretly suspect she might actually be a vampire-wraith.  She did very little to dissuade our suspicions.

Then it was back across town again, where we caught the end of Kelly Lee Owens' electronic dance music set. What we heard was good, but we didn't catch enough to give an honest appraisal of the full performance.

And finally, at midnight, EDM producer extraordinaire Four Tet gave a masterful demonstration of the possibilities and ranges of the genre, mixing in everything under the sun but never letting the beat drop.  It was both music to dance to as well as an enjoyable listening experience.

Four Tet's set lasted until 1:30 a.m., so we had basically been watching and hearing music for 13 1/2  hours today.  According to our iPhone, we walked a total of 4.1 miles marching up and down So Gay Street.  We are exhausted, and now it's time for bed.

Thanks for your interest.  We'll update you on the final Day Four of Big Ears tomorrow.