Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Mikel Patrick Avery’ Category

Tortoise (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, November 6, 2023)

Posted in Basic, Chris Forsyth, Mikel Patrick Avery, Nick Millevoi, Philadelphia, PA, Tortoise, Union Transfer on November 9, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 6, 2023] Tortoise 

Back in the 1990s I really liked Tortoise.  I was especially fond of Millions Now Living Wil Never Die.  But as they released more instrumentals, (all of the songs are instrumentals–more or less), they veered more into a jazz and lite-jazz field.  I didn’t mind it all that much at the time but I definitely listened to them a lot less.

I didn’t even realize they were still an ongoing concern (their last album came out in 2016).  When this show was announced I was intrigued.  I knew my friend Lar had experiences with them (good and bad), but his description of both shows was enough to make me think I should check this show out.

It turns out they haven’t been to Philly since 2016, so this seemed like a reasonable enough reason to check them out.  I mean, even if the songs were jazzy, the musicianship would be excellent.

I was pretty excited to get their early enough to be on the railing.  So I could see everything perfectly.  Well, except that there were two drum kits right in front of the stage.  Which was awesome, but did tend to block my view of the vibes.

Yes, vibes. There were actually two sets of vibes on stage.  One must have been electronic (I was right in front of it and couldn’t see what it was), while the other was across the stage. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Basic (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, November 6, 2023) [TORTOISE]

Posted in Basic, Chris Forsyth, Mikel Patrick Avery, Nick Millevoi, Philadelphia, PA, Tortoise, Union Transfer on November 8, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[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

 

 

Read Full Post »