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Here's what I saw. I honestly enjoyed them all! No duds for me.

Thursday:
Zoe Keating @St. John's (first few pieces}
6:15-7:30 Henry Threadgill @M&M (very end)
*8:45-10:00 SC3 @M&M
10:45 Fred...

I've been to most Big Ears since 2014. As a huge fan of Zorn and Spruance (and their overlapping universes), these last three years have been absolutely unbelievable for me. This was a relatively...

I saw about 30 Secret Chiefs 3 performances between 2000 and 2015. Last night was basically a retrospective. So, it was a bit of a nostalgia bomb for me - moments of frisson and tearing up. While the...

Just noticed that Faun Fables time changed from 2:15 to 12:45 (now I probably can't see them...). Gonna dig in and see if I can find what else has shifted.

Edit: A few others had shifted a little....

I doubt there will be much interest from anyone here, but still thought I'd mention the Pilot Light schedule this year since they aren't officially affiliated. Their "What For?" (free to public) fest...

It was a great show! I caught the next night in Indy as well - significantly different setlists for Sleepytime and CA. I enjoyed both shows equally.

Kind of depends. A loud dance party show = you can leave at any time. But for a quiet or seated show, I'd wait until between songs/pieces.

LMAO

As usual, your observations are agreeable.

Yes thank you for the heads up on this! I listened to the streaming version of the Atmos mix and a few samples of the other tracks. Not my favorite FZ material, and I'm hit or miss about the Atmox...

A neat Halloween-ish article on my favorite venue: https://www.wvlt.tv/2023/10/31/bijou-theatres-haunting-history/

I'm not really into festivals in general, but they can offer some unique, exciting experiences. I can enjoy almost any live music, but I get a bit obsessed for my favorite artists... The last two...

From SC3 Facebook:



And Instagram (referring to a photo with Matt, Jason, Eyvind, Shanir, Kenny, and Ches):

I've been requesting SC3 for years. Can't believe it's finally happening!

Full tour info was recently posted:

Wed 7/19. Indy: The Healer
Thurs 7/20. Pittsburgh: Government Center.
Fri 7/21. Philly: The Rotunda
Sat. 7/22. NYC: C'mon Everybody! (7pm)
Sun. 7/23....

Full tour info was recently posted:

Wed 7/19. Indy: The Healer
Thurs 7/20. Pittsburgh: Government Center.
Fri 7/21. Philly: The Rotunda
Sat. 7/22. NYC: C'mon Everybody! (7pm)
Sun. 7/23....

From this Dave Lombardo interview: https://www.stereogum.com/2222323/dave-lombardo-solo-album/interviews/weve-got-a-file-on-you/

These are one day later on the band's subscription email. There is a TBD Cleveland date on the 26th. Do you know which is correct?

First that comes to mind is stuff like Bill Laswell's Axiom Ambient "Lost In The Translation". His music often shifts between and blends futuristic new age fantasy, electronica, rock, ancient tribal...

Some people (self included) posted our experiences here: https://www.progressiveears.org/forum/showthread.php/29193-Big-Ears-Festival-2023?p=1182194#post1182194

I would like to know what he was playing. From where I sat, it looked like a tanbur (Persian string instrument), but also looked electronic - like he was just fretting with one hand and it would play...

Overall, it was incredible. As a huge Zorn fan, last year was too good to be true. While I prefer the Bijou, I am 100% happy about this year. The TN Theatre is visually beautiful and was necessary to...

Sunday:

10:00 Essential Tremors: Stephen O'Malley
(Zorn conversation East TN History Center was cancelled.)
Discussed three important pieces:
Fugazi - (can't remember which song), Pita - Acid...

Saturday:

12:00 John Zorn: Nove Cantici Bill Frisell, Julian Lage & Gyan Riley
Zorn said it's the best festival in the country. He praised the festival heavily a few times throughout the...

I already posted my experience Thursday. Dumping the rest now

Friday:

1:00 Stephen O’Malley @KMA
(I previously posted some thoughts and a disclaimer about this as well)
"Be perfect today......

Currently in line at the Bijou. Thought I'd share a quick thought on Stephen O’Malley in case anyone is considering one of his other shows. It's electro-acoustic recordings played back on a...

Glad to see some of the new Zorn CDs like 444 and The Fourth Wall at the Jackson terminal.

I probably won't post any more reviews until after Sunday, but I'm the only one awake and I need to unwind...

5:00 Existential Dread / Jake Smith @PL
I'm from Knoxville and know these locals....

In case anyone doesn't know, Laswell has had pretty major health issues lately. For his most recent performances, he was seated and rarely fretting the bass with his left hand - only playing very...

Can you tell me more about that? Last year, Zorn said that BE wanted him to play at the TN Theatre but he wanted to play at the Bijou. I figured BE was the one to convince him to play TN Theatre this...

I'm not seeing any info about the surround panning. And I'm guessing all the audience recordings are stereo at best, so there would be no way to know what is panned to the front or back (I suppose if...

My top request from the vault would be Yellow Shark mixed as closely as possible to the original surround presentation.

Does anyone here have any knowledge of how things were originally panned in...

First Zappa in Atmos right?!?

Probably hasn't been mentioned because he's too obvious, but Béla Fleck... obviously.

Tony Furtado gets into prog territory sometimes. https://youtu.be/Xkc1kaUfv6U?t=1417 Start around 23:37 for...

Yeah, it's rare that a country musician stands out for me, but Sierra Ferrell exceeded my expectations when I saw her live. The other Sierra - Sierra Hull - shreds on mandolin - can hang with all the...

Gotta say I'm a little surprised that there will be more Zorn material. He's such a contrarian (refusing to play in TN Theatre, not allowing Big Ears to take/post photos, etc.), I figured BE would...

Did the lineup leak early?

16285

Just have to say I REALLY hope that works out.

Enjoyed my first ProgDay! I was only there for the second day.

Jon Stickley Trio - A nice acoustic start to the day, I thought. I've seen them before, and the drummer (Hunter Deacon) plays jazz...

Is there a show recording (on YouTube, preferably) anyone could recommend that has a good example of the variety they are capable of?

Here is a multicam edit of the Columbia show: https://youtu.be/M66ss-Qvdbk

I saw the first 4 CH-AX shows on this tour. Wish I would have planned to keep following them. So good.

I encourage discussion about any recommended stops on the route to ProgDay - breweries, restaurants, interesting towns, nice views, hiking, cheesy tourist traps, etc.

That's a solid list. I really like Burial and DSSOLVR. If you weren't aware, Burial has a restaurant called Forestry Camp - it used to be a real Government camp for forestry workers in like the...

They recently announced that the streaming show will be replayed 5/14. Since I'd already seen it, I wasn't sure about dropping another $10 for the replay. But I just noticed that anyone who paid the...

I was very impressed with the streamed show! I've seen them live quite a few times (including once in the same basement where this stream occurred), so hearing/seeing them play live again feels a...

Very excited to see what they do with a "live" stream!

I can't believe Big Ears website is nominated for a Webby Award. In a normal desktop browser, you couldn't even view the whole schedule...

Anyway, I'm still processing the Zorn material. I bought...

Yeah, solo instruments and low-volume stuff are ok there. Throughout the year, most of the shows there are big loud rock shows that sound terrible.

Another topic I failed to mention was extraneous...

I've enjoyed reading all the different perspectives this year (here and elsewhere).

One thing I didn't mention in my notes was that I basically avoid the Mill and Mine completely. I live in...

I went to see Weird Al a few years ago. Emo Philips opened and said something like "I like touring with Weird Al fans because they're a pretty nerdy bunch - if they don't like the show, they blame...

Here's another article:

https://blanknews.com/big-ears-deepens-on-third-day/?fbclid=IwAR1-nQXgdFhpSHRE6MrazPWp95d40ySoAYlkDqAh10PpyujlwWt_bb12H1I

Pretty amusing that Zorn is hardly mentioned in...

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SATURDAY:

John Zorn: Meditations on the Tarot (Brian Marsella, Kenny Wollesen, Trevor Dunn) - This was originally going to be Nove Cantici Per Francesco D’Assisi,...

Looks like I'll have to split this into two posts. Not sure where all the asterisks are coming from (I pasted plain text), but I'm not going to take the time to remove them.

This was probably my...

https://bigearsfestival.org/festival-schedule/

If I go to the schedule page (Chrome desktop), it doesn't show all the venues/columns (some are hidden off to the right). And there is no left/right...

But the number of subscription tracks that end up on albums is a pretty small percentage of what comes with the subscription. There is so much great content behind that paywall, it would be a shame...

As a 'subscriber', I'd heard the songs a few times. But hearing them grouped and sequenced this way really worked for me.

Just listened through HCTS and really enjoyed it. It's every bit as confounding and dynamic as I would hope a C-Ax album would be. Like, it's ranking pretty high on my list of peak listening...

If you like that stuff and haven't heard CHEER-ACCIDENT, I'd recommend checking them out (note that their output varies widely - I usually recommend Introducing Lemon as a starting point).

Also,...

I think the shows are usually scattered throughout the days/times of the festival.

Earwig Deluxe - bizarre, unique, and funny. It's a solo performance artist with poetry, operatic singing...

I have it and listened once. I usually need more than one listen to understand an album very well.

I can say that it was pretty much what I expected from the description - city ambience with...