Unpacking Big Ears, Part 1: 75 Dollar Bill

The last show I saw prior to the covid pandemic was a set at The Earl by indie-pop singer Mattiel in late February 2020. The show was okay and the sold-out audience was enthusiastic (Mattiel is an Atlanta native), but not even remotely suspecting what was coming down the pike, it was hardly what I would have chosen as my last show for two years (possibly forever for all I knew).

All music venues in Atlanta were shut down for most of 2020 and although some limited shows started again in 2021, I for one didn't feel comfortable enough to go back into little sweaty crowded clubs to hear live music yet, especially considering Georgia's low vaccination rate and cavalier attitude toward mask wearing.  

During those two years (2020 and 2021), I attempted to satisfied my thirst for music by exploring the web - scouring Bandcamp and Spotify, searching music blogs for new artists, and following the YouTube algorithms down whatever rabbit hole they led. One of my discoveries was the French drone band Natural Snow Buildings, and in my research into them, I found some videos of their rare live performances on the Archives-Live Ben Lx YouTube channel.  I then watched several other videos on the Archives-Live Ben Lx YouTube channel, and discovered another new (to me) band, Brooklyn's 75 Dollar Bill.

This 2016 performance by 75 Dollar Bill at Paris' Espace en Cours was my first exposure to the duo of guitarist Che Chen and percussionist Rick Brown.  

There are clearly drone elements to the band's sound, but the attraction to me was the improvisational aspects of their performance and the sub-Saharan tone of Chen's guitar.  I watched several other videos of their performances and explored their Bandcamp page. I liked them.

Fast forward to March 2022: The umpteenth wave of covid infections had seemingly passed and I bought myself a VIP pass to the 2022 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee.  The first performance I caught there, an early-evening set on Thursday at The Standard, was by 75 Dollar Bill.  

I went into The Standard, not only my first time inside a music venue since the February 2020 set by Mattiel at The Earl but also my first live show since then, expecting to hear a duo performance like the 2016 set in Paris.

This video isn't their Big Ears set (it's a 2019 video of a set in Brooklyn), but this is what they delivered in Knoxville:

The "Little Big Band" in the video isn't exactly the same as the one at Big Ears, but it's similar. The Big Ears set didn't have Joshua Abrams on acoustic bass, although Abrams' Natural Information Society played The Standard the next night (missed them - I was at the Danish band Efterklang's set at The Bijou).  Andrew Lafkas was on bass instead, but both sets included the string section of Karen Waltuch (viola), Talice Lee (violin) and Sue Garner (electric bass). There was no harmonium, but the 75 Dollar Bill Little Big Band at Big Ears had Cheryl Kingan on sax, Jim Pugliese on congas, and Barry Weisblat on cowbell (don't worry if you don't recognize the names - they're new to me as well).

Over two years had passed between Mattiel at The Earl and 75 Dollar Bill at The Standard.  It was good to finally hear live music again, and what a way to start!