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Upstream, Downstream
by Cripsy Duck
5-8-00

(printed in C-VILLE Vol.12, No.20)

Leftover Salmon - Walker's Run - Clare Quilty
No Lie Relaxer - Q and not U - Engine Down - Jay Glick

"So many of life's invisible doorways are made of glass."
Nehpets Gnilrab
-:-:-.'.'.'.-:-:-.'.'.'.-:-:-.'.'.'.-:-:-.'.'.'.-:-:-.'.'.'.-:-:-.'.'.'.-:-:-.'.'.'.-:-:-.'.'.'.-:-:-
Being a generally non-confrontational Duck (kinda chicken even), I'd sorta avoided Trax since I wrote about their soundguy's lousy reefer ettiquite, but electric bluegrass psychedelicists Leftover Salmon were coming so I slid in to schmooze with the fourth generation Deadhead crowd.

The place was chocked full of eligible cuties and revelling party hounds, but I felt (and confirmed through friends) that the vibe in there was at least mildly repellent and I couldn't seem to shake the dread that I'd be sucked into some uncomfortable altercation due to my previous journalistic transgressions. (I could just see it: "You sonnuvabitch! I said pass the dutchy on the left hand side!")

leftovers anyone?
Nevertheless, I did manage to stand my ground long enough to witness Leftover Salmon gracefully putting the finishing touches on bluegrass' ascent to true electric jam psychedelia. As you may know, bluegrass is traditionally a percussion-free acoustic artform. Leftover ups the anty considerably by adding a super-dexterous drumkit and electric bass and allowing its soloists -- principally mandolin and banjo-- free reign over a slew of electronic gizmos. The result is a powerful electric spewgrass band laying out wild renditions of old time classics and mixing it up with their own frenetic originals. They were sounding pretty damn interesting, but before the second set began some dumbass (I think he said his name was "Huck" -- go figure.) started aggressively messing with me (perhaps unwittingly seeking some karmic retribution) so I bailed to Michael's Bistro.

hoke's no joke
At the Bistro
Walker's Run chugged through some Marley covers and old timey classsics, producing a very warm and welcoming "true bluegrass" vibe while fiddler Steve Hoke tore daredevil spirals through the workings. The unstopppable Hoke isn't a bluegrass musician at all. He's not even a fiddler. He's a guitarist from some other heavy fusionoid metal dimension. Perhaps some countrified long hair second cousin to Venutian Tim Reynolds. Some people get all the chops.

On Friday night I crawled down to Tokyo rose just in time to catch Clare Quilty's local CD release party. The night had been double-booked and five bands had been scheduled to play. I missed the first one, but Clare Quilty stepped up to the plate and immediately started knockin' 'em out of the park, sounding deluxe and sexy in a balls out underhanded mod-rock kind of way. I was very impressed but I spoke to guitarist and chief cortex Michael Rodi afterwards and he seemed to think they played funny. I didn't bother reminding him that it was his job to think he sucked, that's what we pay him for. While you musicians stress and primp, us voyeurs get to stand around and enjoy. It's the life.

nabakov's latest -- nice duck shirt!
relaxer, no lie
After them came an unusual D.C. band, No Lie Relaxer. They reminded me of Gang Of Four with chicks, which was pretty cool, but didn't prepare me for what happened next: a four piece playpit powerhouse calling themselves Q and not U. In much the same way that Engine Down stole the show from The Make-Up the last time they visited the Rose, Q and not U was about to heist Engine Down's night of infamy.
as in Qitar
Q and not U do a sweet, intelligent garage thunder variation on D.C. Fugazi rock, kinda like Engine Down but somewhat poppier and a good bit more pretensious. These two facts might actually make them a little more "commercially viable"-- whatever that amounts to. They flexed and sweated and did lots of early-Who cliche rock maneuvers, but their songwriting was complex, unique and energizing. They also had bonus choreography like when they stopped suddenly so that the bass player could quickly pull out his car keys, reach around the guitar player and jingle them in front of the mike before launching into another powerhouse rock section. They say God is in details, and Q and not U demonstrated that axiom nicely.

still flying on 3 engines
Engine Down's set was plagued with unfortunate mishaps: they went on close to 2 AM, after much of the crowd had bailed out-- and there were fuse problems or something, so amps were cutting off in the middle of tunes. The Downers are obviously perfectionists so I'm sure there was much frustration and hairpulling amongst them afterwards. Still, the fans I talked to were all happy even with half-finished renditions and failed attempts, so I'm sure there will be opportunity to catch them with all pistons firing sometime soon.

warm fuzziness
The following night
Jay Glick had downtown's New Dance Space warmed up for the release of his new disc I Play. Nice renditions of his super-sweet honest folk tunage were accompanied by several different combinations of instruments including flute, cello, viola, djun-djun and female voices. The vibe was so homey in there that I almost could have napped, but the addictively sweet tunes, understated arrangements and interperpretive dance kept me engaged and amused.

-C.D. s

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