I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: November 6, 2023] Basic

Basic is a trio comprised of Chris Forsyth and Nick Millevoi on guitars and Mikel Patrick Avery on drums.

When I found out that Chris Forsyth would be opening this show for Tortoise, it pushed me into the “I gotta go” category.  I knew that whatever it sounded like, I would enjoy it.

I sat near Millevoi, who I didn’t know–he’s a Philly guitarist in Desertion Trio who has released a bunch of solo stuff as well.  For the first song he was pretty quiet while Chris Forsyth soloed.   But for the second song he played a lot more loudly.  He seemed to be the low end–paying riffs and chords while Forsyth was the high notes.

The only problem for me was that Millevoi’s guitar was pretty loud and we were standing in front of his amp, so it made Forsyth’s solos a little hard to hear.

Avery had a tiny bass drum that he hit with a mallet.  On it was a kind of woodblock, which he hit with a plastic mallet.  That’s all he had.  Millevoi often started a drum machine as he started playing so technically Avery didn’t have a lot to do, but seeing and hearing him add bass drum was a nice touch.  Avery also played with some electronics on a table near him.

They played five songs.  The first three were about ten minutes each.  The fourth one was a little shorter, and when I assumed they’d be finishing up around 8:45, at 8:40 they started a new song which took them to a full fifty minutes of jazzy guitar improv.

It was pretty great.  Catchy and fun and interesting to watch these three dudes jam with each other.

They didn’t introduces songs so I have no idea what they played.  In fact the only words spoken their whole set were at the end when Chris said, “that was Basic.”

Great instrumental fun.

And Markit Aneight recorded the whole set