Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Rob Instigator
|
Thanks to Rob's post in the upcoming gig thread, I learned of the Jandek show in Houston last Friday. It was my first time at the Lawndale Art Center and the show was in the main gallery. The walls where white with nothing on them and various Thelonious Monk tunes were playing on a overhead speaker system.
To the far right was a mixing board and several people manning laptops. There was a stationary video camera set up in the back of the room and a guy with a handheld camera lurking in the balcony.
They descended down a staircase onto the Gallery floor......the bass, drummer and keyboardist took their positions while Jandek, donned in black, looking like a distant cousin of Beaumont's very own, Winters Brothers, sat on a wooden thrown over on the side. The audience applauded after the first "song," but then there was no other clapping until Jandek and the band exited the stage. In between "songs," Jandek would go sit on his chair.
Two guys playing bass and drums and a younger looking female keyboard player. The drummer was doing all sorts of high-hat manipulation. At one point, the drummer separated the high-hat top & bottom as far apart as they would go, playing them with mallets. The bottom of the high-hat was wobbling like an empty bowl. The top half was removed and used to play/make contact with the other cymbals. Last but not least, one piece of the high-hat was turned at an angle and forcefully moved up and down the high-hat pole, the friction producing a very unique sound.
The first half of the show, Jandek walked around holding a clipboard with LED lights attached, reading/reciting and moaning the lyrics in the style of an open mic night as he paced the Gallery floor. At no time did it appear to me that anyone in the audience recognized what was being played.
