on wednesday night i had a gig. it was for a student jazz organization called groover; their logo has grover from sesamstraat on it. i thought we were just going to playing in a corner of some bar but here we are at speakers on a stage with a soundman and monitors. speakers is the type of club where house DJs play and people go to get fucked up and bald men have fights on the street at 4am, but we were just in the small bar area. it was fun to play standards with people. playing electric bass allows such easier facility so soloing becomes a lot easier. also it was a good opportunity to memorize a number of tunes i hadn't gotten in my head yet. we practiced a few times so things were ok. i have to admit that with semi-regular rehearsals, the tuesday night jam session at bebop, and the minimal practicing i do alone, i feel myself getting a little better.
--------------------------------------------
on thursday night i went to utrecht with some friends to hear four tet and dan snaith from caribou DJ. it was at a club that was south of the downtown area. you had to walk under the train tracks and go behind a police/fire station to find the place. i guess that is in case the roof is literally on fire, the authorities are close by to intervene. it was my first time in a real euro club and it was ok but the atmosphere got boring after a while. the place had laser lights and a fog machine that clicked on loudly every 9 minutes. the DJs were on the left part of the stage and on the right side of the stage no less than 2 people at a time were being veejays for the video projected behind the stage. if i knew more about electronic music culture i could make a complicated argument for DJ as selector as deity. the experience could be one of submission where you give yourself up on the dancefloor as the DJ pumps the grooves into your body. or it could be a mayan ritual. or it is like that scene in "metropolis" with the big machine and the people marching into its mouth. ok, enough of this analogizing.
four tet was decent. just some well-mixed IDM and almost dubstep tracks. he did work in "ringer" and "love cry," both of which were nice to hear on the dancefloor. at the end he put on some fela kuti which seems to be a common set-ending tactic.
whereas four tet's set was very tightly controlled in terms of the feel of the music, dan snaith's was more eclectic and psychedelic at times. mostly dance music but some times where harps would be ringing for 30 seconds before the next beat dropped. he worked in some latin sounds and the climax of his set was a version of nina simone's "funkier than a mosquito's tweeter" with heavy drums underneath.
eventually it was like 2:15 and the set wasn't ending so we decided to head out because it was getting abusive to stand in that sound for so long. in the center we ate some late night falafel and waited in the station until the train to rotterdam finally left.
on both the train to rotterdam and from rotterdam to delft people started to talk to me because i was american. mostly young people who wanted to know what i was doing in holland. this is funny because some people think i am dutch and are surprised that i can't reply in nederlands while others so obviously know i am an american. i am generally ok with people asking but on the train at 5am is not the best time. this one girl was asking about the best way to stay in america for three months cheaply and if i knew any summer camps she could work at. do i look like a travel agent? i do not know everything about my country. i do not represent my country, i only represent myself. i am being mean now, but i was tired and didn't want to say, "yes, i am here studying, i live in boston..." for the millionth time.
No comments:
Post a Comment