[Jandek] Indianapolis Saturday

[Joshua Harris]

Hi all,
I've lurked on this list for a while, but after seeing
that show I really wanted to write in and say hi. This
show was put together by friends of mine, so I flew
out from Boston just to see it (okay, and to see
friends too...) I thought the musicians were all
superb. The flute/glokenspiel (George "Sparky" Smith
(no relation ;) player caught some slack in some of
the post-mortem discussions I heard, but I felt that
he transported the music into some very interesting
places. He did quote some jazz standards, "Ain't
Missbehaving" for one, which was weird and a little
uncalled for, and he didn't really gel with the rest
of the band, but I feel his impression on the dynamic
was overal positive. If I had to pick a star of the
show that doesn't live in Texas, it would definitely
be the drummer, Nathan Vollamar. At times he played
off the Corwood Representative, and at others it was a
back-and-forth with the very smooth bassist. He was
center stage and provided balance to the music from
his pivot-point. The Bassist, Lester "Lammy" Johnson,
had a very smoothing effect on upright, but
occasionally dipped into Corwidian chaos at times on
the electric. I could barely hear the the viola most
of time. While there is a certain tendency to think of
any woman involved in a Corwood production as
"Nancy"-ish, I didn't really hear that.

As for the songs, I was caught up in the beauty of it
all a lot, although I did notice a lot about breakups,
uneven relationships and rain. The Janitor came back
(I thought he was dead!)

Overall, I feel very confident saying that this was
the best concert I have seen in my life, well worth
traveling halfway across the country to see.

I was one of the two official photographers there, I
shot film so it will take me a bit of time to get my
stuff together. I'm not sure exactly what my rights
are with it, so my plan is to get it all developed,
make contact sheets, send them to Corwood and ask.
With permission, I'll probably set up a flicker
account or something and post it to the list.

I also went to Dannen's reading in Indy. For those who
haven't met him, he is one of the nicest people I've
ever met. Picked up a few books and did a little
reading on the plane ride. Very impressive so far.

Oh well, I've probably rambled enough here for now.
Far better writers will chime in, I'm sure.

Regards,
Josh

---------------------------
"Blessed are the sociable, that say stupid things
And get close to their neighbors"
    -Jandek

Joshua A. Harris, pinholga at yahoo.com


 
____________________________________________________________________________________
Cheap talk?
Check out Yahoo! Messenger's low PC-to-Phone call rates.
http://voice.yahoo.com