David Torn tour

[nick robinson]

just found out Torn is almost througha short UK tour - cannot find ANY advertising for this, even on his own website!

I'll be at Leeds tomoz

www.leedsmusicscene.net/gig/14314/

[Stephen Scott]

Nick,

How did you find out ? Do you know if there are any East Anglian or London dates ?

Stephen

[Stephen Scott]

Oh, I've just found that he's played(ing) 2 gigs at the Vortex (how apt!) club in London yesterday and today.

Any more ?

[nick robinson]

sylvianfisher said:

Oh, I've just found that he's played(ing) 2 gigs at the Vortex (how apt!) club in London yesterday and today.
Any more ?

According to his myspace page, sadly not in the UK

www.myspace.com/prezens

Pretty awful publicity machine he's got behind him ;(

[Stephen Scott]

Grrrrr!

[Stephen Scott]

So Nick, How was it ?

[nick robinson]

sylvianfisher said:

So Nick, How was it ?

Leaving aside the lack of forward promotion, (neither ents24 nor DTs own website mentioned the UK tour), the venue couldn't have better - a small room with raised seating and a seat on the front row for only £12! I'd managed to find DT in the adjacent bar beforehand and had a quick chat, got some CDs signed and presented him with a copy of my book "adult origami" (which to my huge gratification, he said he'd bought a copy to give to a friend!) and a CD of my forthcoming collaboration with Bernhard Wagner.

An 8.45 kick off saw the first of 2 * 45 minute semi-improvs ranging from the wild to the sublime. The band featured the tall and wild-looking saxophonist Tim Berne and his regular Prezens partners Craig Taborn (keys) and Tom Rainey (drums). The sound was not for the faint-hearted, at times very loud, but not painfully so, even from the front row. It was quite awesome to watch one of my main inspirers play from no more than 4 feet away, although I barely recognised any of the chords he played. I asked him post-gig about his choice of chords and he assured me that they all had proper names I also queried his choice of headgear (a large trappers hat) in what was a warm venue, but he said it was "essential".

His axe was an exotic Teuffel Tesla, (which looked as if it was covered in teflon!) a curious beast with wooden controls and what sounded like some kind of transtrem - a full depression of the tremolo arm took it down exactly one octave, as far as I could see. He went through a selection of fuzz, distortion & compression pedals, then into his PCM42 and PCM80. This led to two Fender Twins with what I assume was a powerbrake to reduce the output whilst keeping the distortion. There was precious little looping, but plenty of subtle soundscapes going on in the quieter moments. He used a plectrum, but the majority of the set was a mixture of thumb and fingers (I wonder if Jeff Beck's technique rubbed off on him?) with which he generated all manner of harmonics & noises.

The second set followed the patten of the first, although they did break it into two pieces instead of one. I discussed the show with a friend on the way back down the M1. We agreed that it would have been a challenging evening for the uninitiated, indeed, a couple of guys behind us were very critical after the gig, saying it had no structure and little light relief. For myself, I'd have preferred shorter pieces, such as on the CD. 45 minutes is a heck of a long time to remain attentive and focussed. There were moments of real beauty mixed with serious atonality. I felt the keys were underused somewhat and I missed the classic Hammond sound that permeates the CD, although this could have been a mixing issue. I also felt that some of the best moments were when one or more of the quartet actually stopped and the others had a room to breathe.

Bottom line was that I've *finally* got to see Mr Torn in action at serious close range and to speak, albeit briefly, with him. I also recorded swathes of his performance on my little digicamera, so can study his licks at leisure. I'll pick out highlights and post them on youtube at some point.

[Stephen Scott]

Excellent review Nick. Nice pics too. Very envious.

[sahhas]

thanks for the review of the torn gig, would love to have a cd of the 2 long sets (i still listen to music on cd-old school style).
one clarification-the guitar he's playing in the pic is a Teuffel Coco, odd to see it, the Teuffel web site lists them as discontinued-they have a pearwood core w/ epoxy ouside covering....
wonder if that guitar has his modified electronics like his Koll tornado.
ss---
www.myspace.com/scotthansen

[nick robinson]

sylvianfisher said:

Excellent review Nick. Nice pics too. Very envious.

here's a vid - the original is 240 * 320 and looks fine - the youtube encoding makes it look all pixelated ;(

edit - have reuploaded in a different format, better quality image.

youtube.com/watch?v=0KngIToOA1E

[Simeon]

thanks for the review...wish i could have gone!

the guitar he's playing there is the new Teuffel Niwa, btw...

[andybutler]

A gig from the tour is being broadcast by BBC Radio 3 on Friday night. Available to listen online...and also as "listen again" for the following week.

info:-

www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazzon3/pip/3c1t2/

[nick robinson]

andybutler said:

A gig from the tour is being broadcast by BBC Radio 3 on Friday night.

cool - glad I didn't bother to try and record the gig properly. will be interesting to see how the music works on a second listen.

[ikeaboy321]

nick robinson great review did you take the photos ( I assume that you did) Thank You .
wow what a messy pedal board, humph!

[nick robinson]

Jul 7, 2009 9:50:23 GMT ikeaboy321 said:

nick robinson great review did you take the photos ( I assume that you did) Thank You .
wow what a messy pedal board, humph!

Yes, I took the photos I thought loopers might liek to see