[Jandek] greetings from indy

[Jeremy Frey]

My report (a quick one).. and I'll probably forget/miss some things, but here goes:
  Jandek and band went on a little after 7pm.  They came out one by one, in this order:
bass: heavy set black dude, wore tinted glasses, began the set playing
upright bass
flute/xylophone: thin black guy, looked a bit like mid-age richard pryor, joined the bassist
playing his flute
drums: indie-looking young guy, white t-shirt, laid down a mellow jazzy beat
violin/vocals: pretty girl who kinda resembled alanis morisette; didn't do any big solos
but added to the music nicely with horror-ish stabs, string plucking, and simple lines here and there
jandek: wore all black, looked mostly like he always does live... played his weird electro-
acoustic guitar; looked like a line 6 amp; had a small digital clock sitting on top of the amp,
which ran 7 minutes fast
  also noticed the candles on stage: 4 candle holders, each holding 7 candles
  stage also included 3 of those free-standing folding shades behind all the players; upon first
impression, it looked beautiful, and it ended up sounding stellar... the band stuck to
mostly tonal playing... easy to follow, many touches of jazz and even funk... a few
of the songs sounded like straight marches, jandek-ized.  of course, jandek stuck to his
own style.  musically, it all gelled. audience consisted mostly of indie kids... i'd say maybe 100
150 in attendance.  i was front row, in line with the flute player.
  there was definitely a gambling/chance theme to the lyrics... one song was a slice of life
tale involving a couple having a child, then divorcing, began with "i wish i could've loved
you as much as you loved me" or something similar.  the violinist sang several songs, which
were all fantastic.  beautiful, clear voice, like a neo-nancy, but on one song she cut loose and 
did some really strange stuff vocally.  it reminded me a bit of that weird female vocal thing
 in the b-52s "rock lobster".
bassist played with upright and a fretless bass: looked like a fender jazz,
with black strings.  when the flute player played bells, sometimes he hit them with the 
wrong end of the sticks.  at the end of one song (second to last?), he intentionally dropped the sticks
on the stage just as the song was ending. jandek smiled...the only smile of the evening.
jandek had his music and stand.  he was fairly low key but really got into a few of the songs, stomping out the rhythm of one tune with gusto.  the drummer was mostly superb, adding some
great momentum to a lot of the tunes as opposed to simply adding embellishments.  he was 
hitting the side floor tom, the rims of all the drums, which added a great percussive 
quality to the whole thing.  they played for just over 2 hours.  i just can't wait until this
 becomes out.. i'll buy it the second
it becomes available.  overall, it wasn't terribly easy to wrap one's head around, as there
was a lot going on, BUT, the music was
relatively easy to groove to, which is a welcome change.  i was thrilled to be a part of it, and it was well worth 
the drive from ann arbor, mi.  
  this is all I got for now.  i'll let others fill in the gaps.

 
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