NYC 5/5 Roseland Show:
Well...overall I have to say I enjoyed them last night; however, they are such a loose, jam/improvisation band that sometimes seriously NO ONE holds down the music which can = atonal, arhythmical, w**kery/self-indulgent/"experimental" noise a la some heinous "hard/grind-core" bands and NOT in a good way. BUT this may, and I'm hoping this is an apt scapegoat, be due to my posistioning which was pretty close to the front in addition to some perhaps poorly miced drums. Drunkship's opening not only made me slightly deaf but literally pushed me back and made me feel like I developed an ulser it was so loud at times; felt like my cuticles were practically popping in my face too. I was seriously contemplating leaving had not the pain subsided...a rather bizarre phenomenon that I'm glad dissipated shortly thereafter.
Performance wise I couldn't hear Juan Arlette or Ikey and when I could they were playing very simply, it sounded like Jon Theodor's drums were miced dreadfully, Omar R-L was ripping and dominated the mix and the performance for the most part, Cedric B-Z was ridiculous in a good way, and the two percussionists/sax/flautist were decent too. Set-list was pretty much the same as it's been for the past 8 shows. We also got Larry Harlow (album's salsa keyboardist "legend") on L'via which was an awesome treat and one of the show's highlights. I also saw Serj from System Of A Down walking around up in the balcony section heh.
Round Two tonight....and I'm staying in the back...because one more thing, my god was that crowd abominable...moshing/writhing their bodies and NOT LISTENING (I find that either a lot of people just don't know when a song isn't over or they were just THAT impressed by a section...dunno) and what not. Tried to stay in my own world and listen but at times...seriously unbearable and obnoxious.
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