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Volume CXXXII, Number 4 |
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Jam Band gets jiggy
ERIC WORTHING
CONTRIBUTOR
Last Saturday night Medeski Martin and Wood came to the State Theater, on Congress Street in Portland, for the fourth time in four years. The trio from New York consists of John Medeski on various keyboards and garage-sale musical items, Billy Martin on percussion (everything from Gretsch drums to brake rotors), and Chris Wood on bass. They have been together for eight years and have put out eight albums. They have explored the avant-garde side of jazz, while also stretching out into various shades of electronic music. Needless to say, they are a band of great prestige and power.
However, I do have a few reservations about Medeski Martin and Wood. For one, I feel very out of place, and frankly uncomfortable amidst the crowd of three-week-unshowered, dread-locked, hemp-heads, especially when they lean on me with increasing intensity for the whole two and a half hour show. I feel self-conscious in my music elitism, admitting that I like what popularity has dubbed a "jam band." And I am most worried and disappointed at the fact that their last three studio albums have all sounded very much the same.
But, despite this, Medeski Martin and Wood still completely knocked me out. Despite the suffocating Sate Theater (which I still love with all my heart), the swaying smelly masses, and the first set (which is not even worth talking about), I still found myself being completely enveloped by the music. When they hit their peak in the second set, and still climbed higher, the amount of energy rushing from the stage was enough to wash away all the worries and frivolities in my head.
It's been a while since music has affected me like that, and even though I know that it was nothing profound or deep or anything, it was still something that was completely real and earnest. The music and energy that came off the stage was not for the audience alone, but also for the band. It was not tainted by any pretension or falseness. It was not there to please anyone. Instead it was a selfish jam session that the audience happened to listen in on. Though I did not come away from the night with a feeling of spiritual, philosophical, mind elevating enlightenment, I did leave with a full-stomach satisfaction from hearing good, energetic, pure music.