"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
Crap, sorry...that was a bit short of me I suppose.
The opener were okay. Good at what they did, which was instrumental prog rock. It went a bit long for me and the songs IMHO lacked focus; they were neither adventurous enough to keep me engaged, nor melodic enough to stick in my memory. But that's only my perception, and overall the room seemed to really love them so I might be the outlier here.
Döskalle: first off, I hadn't purchased the live recording so all these songs were first-time listens on my ears. The songs for me had hints of King Crimson and other heavy guitar-led music, but also had a slightly more focused compositional edge; oftentimes with guitar trios like this I start to lose interest but I kept engaged through to the last notes. They even had one tune that was more of a straight out rock/funk kind of tune which still had enough twists and turns to thrill everyone.
Playing was spectacular; the guitarist had a good melodic edge to his leads and also added some very cool looped texture work in the background. The bassist was rock solid and kept the whole thing grounded while still delivering some cool lines (he also switched to guitar for a cool dual passage on the last song that almost had an early Genesis feel going for a bit). Mattias is...I mean, it's him. He's incredibly dynamic and versatile and he brought all his strengths to this band. He also threw in a few cool little keyboard bits which added extra colors to the set.
I also really loved how much the band were interacting onstage; I'm sure some of that is the freshness of the material but the eye contact and queues were great. Lots of smiles as well, they really looked like they were enjoying themselves up there.
I don't know how much that helps with what it actually sounded like, honestly the Bandcamp live album is probably a fair or better assessment than mine. But hopefully this gives a sense of the evening and what it was like to see them live. I thought they were wonderful and would love to see them again (and when the upcoming album is ready, it WILL be mine).
If you're actually reading this then chances are you already have my last album but if NOT and you're curious:
https://battema.bandcamp.com/
Also, Ephemeral Sun: it's a thing and we like making things that might be your thing: https://ephemeralsun.bandcamp.com
A splash of Döskalle from New Jersey...
This is the end of Improvimera...
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4AJWJ6H...d=mfqpuexkokz0
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