a very full (in a great way) work day flowed right into Music on Main's cocktails with composers with Caroline Shaw and Nicole Lizée, and i'm so glad i was able to attend - not only for the delicious sugar cube-infused-with-bitters sparkling wine, with a sliver of lemon peel (which yes, was divine), but for the fascinating insights into these women's works. it without a doubt affected how i approached and processed tonight's musical experiences, which i guess isn't very post-modern, but i remain grateful for knowing things like the way they keep time is though a series of clicks broadcast through their headphones... fascinating!!!
the concert elicited so many particular (and at times peculiar) reactions. in the first offering, i found the visuals (or specifically, the editing of the visuals) wildly outshone the music, which could have been a fault of my ears, or the sound, or the way it was intended.. but the video!! i LOVED the way she found sound and rhythm in Tarantino's work! and some of her editing was truly masterful.
and then Piano Hero. look, i don't always love new music, but i always appreciate it, and this was a shining example. i had no real affinity with the wild cacaphony, but that's when i just sat back and said 'ok brain, you go and forge your new neural pathways!' and my brain rejoiced, like a dog let off its leash in a fertile field.
and then oh, Caroline Shaw.
i might have a bit of a crush.. she is absolutely entrancing. she'll be performing a PuSh/Music on Main co-pro during the PuSh Festival in January: An Evening with Roomful of Teeth. i'll definitely be going to that. the way she just seems to breathe the music out of (into?) her violin so delicately grabs me.
and then finally that karaoke bit.. the technique! the skill! the creativity and skewed view! and funny... which was funny. in the pre-show talk, Nicole Lizée said she wasn't trying to create something humorous, and she spat out the word ironic. and yet, through her pieces, the laughter welled and it felt conspiratorial or at least appreciative, when in fact i guess it was irking her. whereas Caroline said she embraced that playful spirit, and yet her music did not elicit laughter, but transported us sublimely to a sweet soft place of joy - rid of the raucousness of laughter...
weighing, contemplating, processing all this, i boarded my bus home, and rejoiced to see my favourite seat unclaimed: back, left. and then a sound.. was it outside..? it was so faint.. an acoustic guitar softly sighing Randy Rhoads' Dee. Dee!!! and then i saw him, in the dark first seats of the bus, exactly opposite me in the very front right seat. he finished and i clapped lightly.
he kept playing. i picked up my shit and went to sit near him. he was shy, said i probably knew everything he was doing wrong. i pshawed and awed, said "you just played Dee!! you're doing everything right." and he lit up, apparently nobody recognizes that song. and we talked about Randy Rhoads. and he said imagine if he'd lived, and i chose to imagine a collaboration with Stevie Ray Vaughan. and he smiled.
and he played it again, sometimes haltingly, sometimes shyly, but at all times beautifully. and then he played more, and more still, and i sat smiling, happily watching fingers reaching through fingerless blue gloves to slide against a bright red guitar. i could not have dreamed up a more poetic scene. and then his stop arrived, and we wished each other a good night, and i knew that i'd already well achieved that.....
listen to Randy Rhoads' Dee here.
