DC-music fans have been spoiled rotten with an abundance of amazing shows this year (just ask the Velvet Lounge’s Scott Verrastro—the man books most of them!), but Wednesday evening’s too crazy to-be believed pairing of Ethiopian sax legend Getachew Mekuria with Dutch avant-punk troublemakers The Ex has to go down as one of the year’s most transformative. It’s certainly going to be one of the year’s most talked-about Black Cat shows for sure…
(photo from Baltimore’s city paper’s cool webinterview)
Unfortunately, I missed out on Shortstack’s opening set because of Barack Obama. Not really, but damn that was fun to type. (The full truth and nothing but: I live in Falls Church and I’ll be damned if my district is going Republican on Nov. 4, so I’m helping out on the campaign side of things. Alas, things ran a little later than planned Wed. night and the next thing I know I’m doing my best Bo Duke impression sans the General Lee to get to the gig.) Anywho, while my arrival sadly coincided with the end of Shortstack’s set, I did manage to get a nice sampling of reviews from friends and fellow music fans on the opener’s performance. Word on the street was that the Shortstack gang were pretty darn impressive. “Hang on a sec here,” I said to one friend who gave a particularly glowing review, “isn’t it a little odd that Shortstack would be opening? I mean, they’re like an alt-country band, right? Isn’t that like Band of Horses
opening for a baseball bat-wielding, microwave-bashing Gang of Four?” My friend’s nail-on-the-head riposte: “Dude—do you know who The Ex is playing with tonight? This night is about odd pairings!”
Indeed it was. But as salient a point as my friend made, I was also reminded of a question that had been lingering in my mind ever since I first heard about this show: How much of this evening’s entertainment value would be based on the obvious novelty factor of seeing a 70-something Ethiopian sax maestro playing next to some crusty, ill-tempered middle-aged Dutchmen with guitars that sound like chainsaws making love to each other?
Don’t get me wrong here—The Ex kick all kinds of ass. Always have. And of course Mekurya’s sax playing could probably woo any gal with a beating heart but…together? On the same stage at the same time? That sax with those guitars? No way dude! (I can hear my friend Mark Williams now: “Oh ye of little faith.”)
Some background: The Ex have been making noisy, confrontational, politically charged punk records since the late 70s. While their earlier material was fairly straight-ahead (but not straight-edged) punk, their musical palette widened considerably as their career progressed. The band has collaborated with a wide-range of artists and performers over the years, including several from non-rock backgrounds. Case in point: In the early 90s, The Ex made two albums with avant-cellist Tom Cora. The takeaway: They may be crusty, ill-tempered middle-aged Dutch punks but they’re also extremely open-minded and culturally curious aesthetes.
Once the band hit the stage, they wasted no time in delivering a devastating sonic blow. To my delight, those larger-than-life sounds were not just emanating from The Ex and saxophonist Mekurya, but a backing band that included another sax player, a trombonist and a clarinet player that bore an uncanny resemblance to Kramer from Seinfeld. And when these guys are all playing together, well…let’s just say that they make a PHAT sound. You don’t just hear it. You don’t just feel it. Your entire body and soul somehow instinctively recognize this music, even if you haven’t heard it before. (prior to the show, my knowledge of The Ex’s music was limited to the band’s singles collection and a handful of studio albums, unfortunately not including their latest—“Moa Anbessa,” a collaboration with Mekurya).
I looked around the audience and what did I see? People of nearly all stripes were giddy with enjoyment. Smiles, smiles and more smiles. People bopping their heads and swaying back and forth. “Damn,” I kept thinking to myself, “this is the kind of music that nourishes your soul and makes you feel good to be alive.”
Probably the biggest revelation for me was how surprisingly accessible much of the music was (and believe me if you’ve ever heard any of The Ex’s albums, “accessible” is probably not the first word that will spring to mind). Perhaps you’ve heard about those avant-jazz shows with the completely insane playing that delights the ears of music theorists and jazz geeks but remains largely impenetrable to most pop-minded music lovers? This was not one of those shows. And while the two Ex guitar players weren’t at all shy about testing the mettle of their amplification or indulging in some atonal metallic scraping, even they were not averse to showing restraint at key points during the evening. In fact, during one standout track, The Ex rocked out a rather low-key, almost Peter Gunnish-sounding number, while Mekurya’s seductive saxophone added an irresistable film noirish flavor.
Mekurya, of course, was unquestionably the star of the show and attendees were treated to a several choice solo moments, all of them tastefully performed without a whiff of self-indulgence. During these moments, I couldn’t help but notice that members of The Ex were just as transfixed by Mekurya’s playing as the audience!
Another unexpected and wonderful surprise came in the form of an African dancer who jumped out from behind the stage to perform a simply indescribable dance routine to Mekurya’s playing. It was almost as if the denizens of the Black Cat that night were privy to a sacred African ritual. At one point, the dancer wielded some sort of blade while he was dancing, underscoring the ritual feel and no doubt making a few attendees a tad nervous. Thankfully, no limbs were lost in the performance.
Of course, the audience lapped it all up like manna from heaven. And the enthusiastic response was rewarded by not one, but two encores.
For those lucky enough to experience it, the show will forever be engrained in the hearts and minds as one of those rare concerts that’s hard to put into words. Everyone I spoke with after the show couldn’t help but gush. Of course, most of them had a hard time explaining what they had just seen and so did I.
So let me just leave you with this: That was one helluva show.
Fuck of a show. I’ve long been ruined on saxophone due to Kenny G and “smooth Jazz” but dude was amazing.
August 15, 2008 at 1:30 pm