The Word @ Terminal 5 12/27/07

I was reminded last night that I just go to stellar jazz shows all the time while I'm waiting for shows like last night to come around. Don't get me wrong, I love jazz. It's just that I had to make a concerted effort to love it, by listening to the greats on cd for a while, before I could appreciate it. I had the goal of being able to go out to live music every night, and being in NYC, I knew I could accomplish that by adding more jazz to the list of potentials. Since then, I've fallen in love with the genre, and it's helped me appreciate everything more.

Still, last night was much more my style. I love that southern influenced, jamming, funky, soulful stuff. I love NMAS period. Adding Medeski just makes it all the better. I even enjoyed Robert Randolph last night. I suspected I would, since I loved it a few years ago when he came out playing regular guitar at a NMAS show at Irving Plaza.

I didn't know about The Word when they played an Iriving Plaza show previously. I stumbled on their cd when I was browing Ropadope's online catelogue a few of years ago. I knew I had to have it immediately, so I purchased it with that order. It's an awesome cd.

I was so glad to get the chance to see them live in person last night. I listened to everyone who had been to Terminal 5 so far making me hesitant I wanted to even be there. I then realized my expectations were so low there was a good chance it would be better than I think. It was. I think the fact that it wasn't sold out helped as well. It was pretty crowded, but not overly crowded. I loved finding room to dance. I also loved that the crowd was into dancing, or at least there were enough dancers to make me happy.

At first, I was on the 1st floor under the overhang. I held my coat and had plenty of room to dance. I had gotten there a few minutes after it started, so I didn't have to wait in a bad line. I lucked out because I was actually late, and they ended up starting late. I would not have wanted to miss much of that. I was enjoying the music, even though the sound wasn't great for a while. Then, I decided to find the coat check, which is on the 2nd floor. It sounded a lot better up there and it wasn't too crowded. I decided to see what the 3rd floor was like. It had more room and I found a place to stash my coat. I stayed up there for a bit, but it was too hot. I went down to the 2nd floor and found a good dancing spot. I couldn't see, but it didn't really matter. I had a great time over there. At set break, I went down to the floor to socialize and ended up staying down there for the first few songs of the 2nd set. The nice, soulful sultry stuff. I had room and could dance, but I did end up going back to the 2nd floor so I could have lots of room.

Overall, the venue wasn't bad. It's a large venue and that's how they are. I enjoyed all the music, every minute of it. I won't be going there that much, but that's mainly due to large venue and location.

I thought about trying to get to Burnt Sugar at Zebulon, but decided I had enough and could go home.

It was a great way to start the rest of the year. I've been off since Fri afternoon, and I feel like things are kicking up a notch after last night. I'm looking forward to the Mule and Porter and I'll probably end up at The Join. I hope to get to Kinninger tonight at Blue Note.