[ATTENDED: February 10, 2024] Nels Cline’s Consentrik Quartet
I was excited about this show for a couple of reasons. I love Nels Cline’s work in Wilco, but I never get to ficus on him because there’s so much else to see in Wilco. Plus, this was a 3PM matinee show! I could go to a show and see a great band and be home for dinner!
Well, then Scott Thompson announced a show that evening, so I guess I would be very busy on this Saturday.
I was also excited because I had never been to Solar Myth before, but I’d heard it was a great venue. Well, little did I realize that Solar Myth is Boot and Saddle! The venue has been remodeled into more of a coffee shop 9although they do serve wine as well). They sell jazz records, the bathrooms are less weird and there’s even more room by the door to the venue.
Best of all though is that they didn’t change anything in the performance room. Our show was seated and I feel like most shows there are seated. But honestly that just gives you much better sight lines.
So the Consentrik Quartet was introduced by someone from Ars Nova, the non-profit arts company that puts on a lit of experimental shows in New York and Philly. They bought Boot & Saddle and basically turned it into an experimental jazz club. Which sounds dire, but this show was packed (all three shows at Solar Myth had sold out). he told us that contributions to Solar Myth helped Nels Cline get a grant to make music during the pandemic. So tickets to this show were basically there to keep music like this going. Pretty cool.
The Consentrik Quartet consists of Nels Cline (Guitar), Ingrid Laubock (saxophone), Chris Lightcap (bass) and Tom Rainey (drums). The music was 100% experimental jazz, with some parts that were catchy and swinging and other parts that were noisy and skronking with wild sax soloing and crazy chords from Nels.
Each musician was excellent. Chris Lightcap had the least work to do aside from holding everything together as it spiraled in all directions. His bass was grounding and perfect, sometimes bowed with occasional runs of his own, but mostly just perfectly placed upright bass notes. (more…)
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