Monday, July 14, 2008

Steven Bernstein @ The Living Theatre 7/10/08

That was awesome. As we know, I really miss Tonic. I especially miss Tonic most of all because it left a huge void in Steven Bernstein shows. He said that was about to change as he misses us, too. I’m glad to see that’s starting to happen, and MTO has a gig at Drom at the end of the month.

He seemed especially happy to be in Manhattan the other night. He was full of fun stories and talked a lot before each song. The show went on for about 1.5 hours before they asked them to stop because it was getting late. I think he would have continued for a bit longer if he had unlimited time.

This was a great lineup: Bernstein, Krauss, Rojas, and Black. It was awesome. It was like SexMob, but maybe a little more on the free side. Or, maybe SexMob when they are a little more on the free side. There was plenty of lively get down grooving in the show as well. I know because I saw some heads bopping in the seated section.

There’s one song on the grammy-nominated cd that Jim Black plays on. Steven told us the story, which I can’t quite remember. It involved someone asking him to make the song more danceable, and the way he wrote it, it wasn’t a job for Kenny. So, he asked Jim to play that song. This was the only time they ever performed it live and it was awesome! Afterwards, he said there is no reason to ever play it live again. I have a feeling if he ever gets Black and Krauss on stage again, he might give it another try someday. Still, I felt like he was making this one a little more special for us, in honor of being back in Manhattan for the 1st time in too long.

Marcus Rojas was awesome on the tuba as usual. Sometimes he held down the bassline and at others he really stretched out. He was mainly taking the bass part, though. It was nice to have him there.

He also told us he changed the name of Sex Mob to SexMob. He said they don’t need the space anymore.

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