Mack Furlong sat down at the drums and announced that this was their first performance at the LSPU in about ten years. Suddenly I felt that this would be a very special performance. Here's why.
One of the things I enjoy about a live performance, improvised or otherwise, is that each one is special. This is not just some trite, sardonic way of suggesting that none of them are special. Even a pain-stakingly well-rehearsed show will always have some little thing that doesn't go according to plan, and it is this little thing that sets it apart from all other performances of the same music by the same artist. Improvised performance reminds me of this. Yet over the last several years, I haven't attended many concerts, period, and none that feature free improvisation, and slowly I have forgotten this fact about live performance.
Somehow Mack's opening remarks brought my mind back to this idea, and I was therefore primed to enjoy something that I knew I would never hear again. The Black Auks played for about half an hour, and I truly enjoyed every minute of it.
The Auks set was followed by a brief dance routine by Louise Moyes, which preceeded traditional Indian tabla playing and vocalizations. Bageshree Vaze (dancing) and Vineet Vyas (tabla) with Adam Duncan on guitar and Bill Brennan on keys performed with lots of energy and virtuosity. I was blown away when they paused occasionally to explain the importance of the syllables, and their meaning. They would follow this with a lightning-fast vocal recitation of these syllables, followed by an accompaning representation of the very same syllables through dance moves and tabla playing.
It's clear to me that Vineet Vyas is the Eddie Van Halen of the tabla, without doubt!
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