Last night's show left me wondering, "WTF? Where the hell did that come from?" I mean that in a good way. Black metal, bluegrass, reggae, Scandinavian choral folk songs - those are about the only genres not heard last night. What we did get was a lot of psychedelic rock, epic guitar jams, blues rock, space jazz, country rock, and Laurel Canyon folk rock.
The set, at Atlanta's beautiful Terminal West, started with a set by LA's The Blank Tapes.
The Blank Tapes may be from LA, but they sounded like Height Ashbury, circa Summer of Love. They played a wonderful, retro brand of psychedelic rock that would not have sounded out of place in 1967 at the Fillmore West. Last night, they sounded every bit as groovy as this video performance.
I have to give bonus points to the band for the mini-skirt and for having a tambourine/maracas player.
It was a fun, almost 45-minute opener, but barely prepared us for what came next.
Now, my sole aspiration for the night was to go hear some good music and then get back home at an early enough hour that I could get some sleep before work this morning. The doors opened at Terminal West at 8:00, and the show was advertised to start at 8:45. Since Terminal West tends to keep their shows running on time, I figured that with only two bands on the bill, I'd get home by 11:00.
No such luck. Jonathan Wilson not only played a wonderful set of near perfect, guitar-driven rock, he played for a full, solid two-and-a-quarter hours, and I didn't get home until after 12:30 am.
But it was worth it.
In case you need an introduction (and you probably do, as there appeared to be less than 100 people in the audience), Jonathan Wilson "is a musician’s musician. When artists are in Southern California they invariably visit Jonathan’s studio, which was founded in Laurel Canyon, moved to a larger space in LA, and is credited with rejuvenating the music genre named after the region. Jonathan has produced albums from a variety of artists including Dawes, Father John Misty, Bonnie Prince Billy and Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes. His studio has also hosted studio jam sessions with an even wider variety of artists . . . So it comes as no surprise that Jonathan Wilson’s solo albums often contain a who’s-who of special guests along with the best available studio musicians. Jonathan’s most recent album Fanfare (Downtown Records) has been hailed as one of the best of 2013, and rightfully so" (NYC Taper).
NYC Taper was also kind enough to post these samples from his show last week at The Bowery Ballroom, which gives a pretty good impression of just how eclectic last night's performance was.
This was one of those performances where you kept thinking each song was the finale, only to find he had even more still up his sleeve. Wilson admitted at one point that they were deviating from their set list and being more rebellious than usual, much to the delight of the audience. When be bought The Blank Tapes' Pearl Charles onto the stage to accompany him on percussion while his other guitarist led the band through the umpteenth, extended guitar jam, you had to think that was the climax, but in retrospect, that wasn't even the three-quarter mark. It was that kind of night.
I didn't get nearly as much sleep last night as I had planned, but as I said at the top of this post, it was totally worth it. Two terrific sets by two terrific bands, each giving the small audience their all-out effort.
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