Last Thursday I went to see Tortoise at Metro. It was my first time at Metro, and my first time seeing the band. I was really impressed. When I first heard an album of theirs back at CMU, I wasn’t sure what the fuss was about. Their somewhat atmospheric instrumental rock didn’t really grab me.
In the years since, I’ve warmed up to them considerably, and this show was the culmination of that time. Their front line on stage is two drum sets, a set of vibes, and a Marimba Lumina. Across the back there were two guitars, two electric basses, two Powerbook G4s (actually, one of these was setup at the drums, with a keyboard attached), and a bunch of synthesizers. You couldn’t ask for something more up my alley.
Everyone in the band plays more than one instrument through the show, and at any one time at least two people are playing the same kind of instrument. This sometimes meant two guitarists (typical of many rock bands), two drummers (not unheard of), two bassists (not at all common), or two mallet (even three!) percussionists (in a rock band?). There was also a little bit of two instruments at once, like keyboard and drums, or melodica and keyboards.
The music was excellent, even if Metro’s sound was weird and too loud (I had earplugs). They played several from their new album, and several more from older recordings. There were times where I felt like they were playing some kind of cross between classical chamber music and rock. The energy level was sometimes very exciting, sometimes relaxed. I liked the mix, although I did sometimes wonder how much fun certain of the tunes were to play. John Herndon, one of the two drummers, was a powerhouse, really high energy the whole time. John McEntire, the producer and other drummer, is a marvelous musician and looked like he was sort of leading things technically. It was watching him that gave me the chamber music idea.
At any rate, they made a big fan out of me with this show. Tony was with me, and as many shows as he’s seen in town, he’d never seen them before either. It was a good night.
If you want to hear Tortoise live but can’t make a show, you’re in luck. They’re a taper-friendly band, which means people can be authorized to record their shows as long as the recordings are traded, not sold. I downloaded a couple shows using BitTorrent and the etree BitTorrent tracker, and have been listening to them on and off over the past several days. I think they pretty much stick to one set list throughout a tour, or at least blocks of a tour, since their setup is so elaborate, and there are only five of them. So you could listen to the show from April 24 and get a pretty good idea of what we heard at Metro.
I already had TNT, Millions, and Standards before I got the tickets. By the time I actually saw them, I was a card-carrying Tortoise-liker. I guess now I'd call myself a "fan". Getting the new album for $10 didn't hurt either.
Posted by Joe at June 9, 2004 10:46 PM
your discription of how you slowly got into tortoise is the exact same as mine (not really surprising). seeing them live really did make me all that more impressed with them. maybe i should see if they are coming through boston on this tour (or maybe they already have).
my sis got me the new album. i like it, but it doesn't stand out as anything different from their other releases. i think i like standards and tnt better. but it is still good, and maybe it will grow more with time. unlike most people, i think i like standards the best.
but yeah, when i saw them awhile ago, i bought their first two releases after the show because seeing them was so cool. i'm glad to hear that you liked it.
Posted by evan at June 9, 2004 10:27 PM