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spacebugGunn was my date to the Klezmatics show last night. It was billed as a Hannukah party. I don't know if anyone knew we were gentile interlopers who got in for free, but we were kinda lost during the Yiddish singalong portions of the evening and felt, both amusingly and profoundly at times, as though we were crashing someone else's party. Which I guess is fitting since we basically were. Gunn decided that "So the Irish Catholic and the Turk walk into a klezmer show..." must be the beginning of some bad joke, though we're not sure what the punchline would be. We were some of the only attendees in the 25-30 range, heavily outnumbered by older jewish folks and then there was an odd teenage klezmer mosh pit in the back behind the chairs they'd set up, which was pretty awesome. For having grown up in the twin cities and having lived in two different places and attended a large portion of my college classes on the west bank, it's a shame that I'd not ever made it to a show at the Cedar before last night.
The Klezmatics are really impressive musicians. They do what they do really well and they've obviously been doing it a long time, together. Their energy was familial. Watching them play made me really miss playing music regularly with other people. Zurround obviously has many differences from these folks, but the show made me remember the best parts of the vibe of being on stage with five other people you know really well. Every member of the group is a multi-instrumentalist. They all sing, and often do so together in complex harmony. Their primary singer also plays a wicked accordian, guitar, and piano. The trumpet player doubled on keyboard. The sax player played that and clarinet and a flute I couldn't identify, as well as piano and a jaw harp. The bass player (who played a six-string like it was nothing) also played a dulcimer and another organ-type instrument I couldn't identify. Their violinist was phenomenal. They mentioned having won a Grammy earlier this year, which I hadn't known. It made their down-to-earth manner and humor with each other and the crowd all the more endearing.
Anyway, good show!
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Date: 2007-12-10 04:34 pm (UTC)By the way, I have stuff that I need to get back to you...I'll have more time after Wednesday...
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Date: 2007-12-10 05:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-10 05:55 pm (UTC)Hippie ShindigFolk Festival, in... '93 and '94? '94 and '95? They're fucking amazing, they've been aronud forever, they havemn't slowed down at all, and they have two Woody Guthrie albums, one of which is a Hanukkah album. (Not sure how they managed that.)I want to tell you that many of their fans are not old and do not speak Yiddish. :) Congratulations, it's terrific that you went -- you made an important decision, seriously. Not enough people know about them. They, especially that killer lead guy and the killer fiddler you mentioned, have done a bunch of stuff with John Zorn and the people surrounding him if you're interseted. One used to be able to get ALL that stuff at Let It Be but now I don't know -- hopefully there's a smallish online store that needs your support and caries it. I am a bit shocked that you hadn't been to the Cedar but I'm glad that's amended. ;)
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Date: 2007-12-10 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-11 01:21 am (UTC)