FraKctured - live performances - audient report

8/11/00 - 9:30 Club, Washington

Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2000 23:52:23 -0500 (EST)
From: Dan Wasser <crimsonkng@mail.com>
Subject: GIG REVIEW: 9:30 Club 8 Nov 00

So anyone who was at the 9:30 Club (D.C.) show on Wednesday night has to admit that Fracktured was absolutely the best song of the night. Those guys rocked! They were very heavy, very heavy.

Adrian has a great sense of humor. He is a riot. I even saw Robert crack a few smiles. It's obvious why Trey is such a great bass player (can you say that? bass?). His fingers are long. Pat did some amazing things. Especially during LTIA Pt. IV.

Trey played a beautiful song with the stick during the second encore. It was really, really, beautiful.

So when I left my house to go to the concert, I grabbed four pieces of Halloween candy from my kids' stash, figuring I'd munch on it sometime during the night. During the concert, I was literally right in front of Trey Gunn. So, at the end of the main part of the show, I decided to pull out the candy (it was two Butterfingers, a Milky way, and a Kit Kat) and show it to Trey. He was like: what's that? Then he kind of motiioned: yeah, I'll have one. So, I I gave him one. Then Pat saw me and he, too, said he'd like a piece. So, I gave him one, too. In exchange, Pat gave me a drum stick (it's cool: a Vic Firth stick with KRIMSON and "Pat" on it.) Then, during the (second?) encore, I gave Trey the other two pieces, for Robert and Adrian. Long story short: At the end of the show, Robert looked at the candy and decided to throw them into the crowd. Woo-hoo! What a riot!

Those guys are great!

Dan

From Trey Gunn's diary at www.treygunn.com

November 8, 2000 9:30 Club, show #1 / Washington D.C.

I'm a little mixed about tonight's performance. The audience was great and enjoyed the show. A lot, actually. The band was decent enough. Strong, but not outstanding. Decent is the word I would use. However there was something that bugged me about tonight's show. I have been pondering it for two days now and I think I've finally found it: the show was too casual for me. Not all of it. Some of the pieces are casual, and even humorous - like ProzaKc and Cage. But some of the pieces aren't -- like Red and Larks' IV. Both Red and Larks' came off too casual for me. These pieces should be INTENSE. Even scary. And I don't mean 'scary', like 'man, those guys have such incredible chops. How they can even play this music is scary.' Not that kind of scary. That's scary in terms of the technical delivery, not in the essence of the piece.

But Red (and Larks' to a lesser degree) is scary! In its essence it is frightening. Yet, somehow, tonight it came off more humorous and casual then intense. And I don't care for it like that. One of the problems for Larks', tonight, was that it followed right after Cage. With Cage being so fun and playful, I felt Larks' to be just a big old pompous pile of prog-rock indulgence. I know that it isn't! But, it did feel like that to this musician. I don't think the other guys would agree, but that was my experience.

With Red... well I can't really say. It just felt more like a living room
performance for the neighbors, then a terrifying sonic assault. Perhaps the audience just made us feel so relaxed and comfortable. I feel like with these kind of pieces that we actually need to confront the inner state of the audience with this music. A real confrontation, and not a 'hey, check out this little tune that we can play' vibe. I need to play with this some more. It may just be me finding a better way to engage with the audience (or a particular audient) for these pieces.