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Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Looking to Celebrate?

posted by on November 8 at 17:16 PM

It’s not that I don’t care about the fate of our country. I do. But I also know that biting my nails and watching a television wasn’t going to change a goddamn thing about last night’s results, so I elected to go to Jazz Alley with a friend to see the Bad Plus, who look like this:

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And sound like this. They’re a jazz trio and they’re fucking great—kind of experimental, kind of populist, kind of hardcore—despite this comment to my Line Out post yesterday:

poor poor journalists and dj’s: all seemingly blind to the reality that this art-music band AIN’T ALL THAT (this coming from someone who’s caught ‘em three times and could care less at this point: they b overrated)

Check it out, sourpuss: When we sat down in the Alley, my friend had been feeling like he was coming down with a cold for a week. I was grumpy. Doom was in the air. Some cocktails and some music later (they take normal through-ways in the jazz sound—a super-familiar chord progression, for example—then stop to linger and play around and explore before heading back into the rest of the song; or they’ll stop and repeat one blip over and over like a scratched record; or they’ll build to a climax, usually led by their fantasticdrummer, then throw the noisy song over a cliff and bust into Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for fears) we stepped into the night improved. My friend felt healthier than he had in days. I was inexplicably cheerful. And the Dems had taken the fucking house and made gains in the Senate and Rumsfeld was hours from his resignation.

Say what you will, you unimpressed music mavens, but the Bad Plus is good medicine.

(They play one more night. Tonight. Call Jazz Alley at 441-9729 for more information. Yeah!)

RSS icon Comments

1

granted, the drummer IS undoubtedly very good. but that alone does not make a band worth paying $20+ dollars to see (YOU get in for free. We don't.)

Here's the deal: The Bad Plus is, unfortunately, prone to *excessive cleverness and theatrics*

IRONICALLY, it is this very flaw that has made them so attractive to pointy-headed alt-weekly/jazz writers all over the country. Like the bad plus, YOU TOO are plagued by overintellectualized verses - such as the masturbatory diminuendo and crescendo of your above review. are you talking about fellatio, cunnilingus, or a concert? ;-)

whatever the case, y'all are ALL chips offa da same block.

and lastly, your arty defense has left me, by a slight yet signifcant margin of victory, more annoyed than "improved"... ;-)

p.s. - please don't flog me with your drama-school ruler for any misspellings, bad punctuation, grammar, etc.

Posted by prick up your ears | November 8, 2006 6:26 PM

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