MOTM

Not as detailed as previous reports, but I thought I'd still say 
something:

  I went up to see Robert play in Pittsburgh last night.  The weather in 
this area lately has been wretched, and some of the rain found its way 
through the leaky theatre roof and into Robert's (Mackie LM3204) mixer.  
The mixer was having conniptions, so we took it apart and used a blow 
dryer to hopefully improve things.  Robert was concerned that it was 
'fried' and was mulling over having to cancel his set, but I think 
after explaining that water doesn't really cause that sort of problem 
(more of a capacitance issue than shorting-out/frying stuff) and provided 
the machine was dried out thoroughly, it would run fine, which it did.
Robert was understandably agitated, which means he was merly nice instead 
of impeccably nice.

  Of course, these actions delayed the start of the concert by 90 minutes,
but given that there was a bar, I don't think the patrons minded much.  
The first act was a husband/wife duo where the guy would play a variety of
flutes (end-mouthpiece, top mouthpiece, piccolo recorder, etc) and by the
magic of sample delay looping, create a sort of chord bed to overlay a 
top-note melody.  The lady would supplement this with various percussion 
instruments to provide an Eastern flavor.  Not particularly my genre of 
music, but interesting nonetheless.  Their set was 30 minutes.

  Next was guitarist Jeff Pearce, who used two guitars and a Chapman stick
(a sort of 12-stringed fretboard played by tapping the strings).  His work
was very nice to experience, and even after examing his rig the sound is a
bit of a mystery.  He samples his guitar in realtime, and through the
magic of delayed playback, envelope followers and whatnot he creates very
complex and pleasing chord structures over which he will apply solo work.  
He played 3 short 'melodic' pieces and one longer, more abstract piece.  
His music was much more interesting that I thought it would be.  Again, a
30-minute set.

  At last Robert took the stage, and after explaining to the audience that 
it was a 70-minute set that is continuous, he started right into it.  His 
MIDI sequencer brought forth all sort of percussion, bass and counterpoint 
themes from his instruments.  I could tell a number of these sounds were 
MOTM-derived as he would occasionally adjust the modular to bring up a 
sound, though most of his time was spent playing his flutes, his steel 
guitar, or adjusting the mixer as he transitioned from one song into 
another.  At times he would use one of the keyboards to add to the 
ambience he'd established wth the percussion sequences and bass notes.

  I had to leave right after he finished, but I could see on my way out 
that folks were buying up CDs.  FYI, he has _24_ albums out.

  It was definitely worth the drive through the storms to see Robert 
perform live.  I only wish I could spare the time to go to the Harrisburg 
concert and listen to Steve Roach and John Serrie. ;)

Crow
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