Adrian Belew Power Trio concert - first thoughts...
don't worry, i will write a full and proper review of the concert for publication at Ground Control Magazine in a few days. right now i need to share and document some of my immediate feelings. first off, the first most amazing thing that happened tonight was arriving at the ticket office at Slim's and finding once again that my name was NOT on the guest list. Slim's is losing my respect in this department because as usual, once the tour manager is found everything is rectified. this was amazing in a NEGATIVE sense.
next amazing thing was meeting Renee (Tickledrop) in line. in fact, i didn't even take 2 steps from the ticket window when she walked up to me and called out my name. i have only seen this woman once before and that was in Santa Cruz at the ABPT show back in November 2006. first thing she said was to comment on, how in my blog i talked about coming off meds. she said that she could tell that a definite change had occurred in my countenance, that i seemed more "connected to the earth" i think she said. i took that to mean that i seemed grounded. i agree. anyway, she was all over me with compliments and attention as if we were old friends. she herself is so easy to be near. i would have loved to, well many things... she kept smiling at me in the crowd and asking if i was enjoying myself... it was obvious i think that i was. and she had gifts for me too! a beautifully designed ABPT tee-shirt and a new Adrian Belew button! there is something more that she said to me that i will relate later.
next amazing thing, someone puts their hand on my shoulder from behind while i was standing by the stage waiting for the show to start. "Dr. D!" the voice calls out. I turned around and it took me a second to remember who it was. it was the voice more than the face i remembered. it was a man named "Greg" that i had met at the 2006 Santa Cruz show too. that meeting was very unusual because he had walked up to me at that show and said he knew who i was from my blog! he had never commented on my blog so i had no idea who he was but he knew all sorts of things about me. see? just when you think that no one reads your blog there really are people out there that do. it was good to see him. he had brought his 10 year old son to the concert tonight; his first ever. good call i said. i am sure i will see "Greg" and his son at the next Belew concert too!
OK... now, thoughts about the performance. i wasn't moved to tears tonight the way i was at The Waterboys concert in October. and i didn't start to wander into a hypnotic mental trance the way i did last week at Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, but something else spiritual did happen to me during tonight's concert. i was standing face to face with POWER. and i don't mean that in a light or filial sense. when Adrian Belew walks on stage he comes out with POWER radiating out of him; out of his eyes, out of his smile, out of his demeanor, and it is undeniable that he feels healthy, but more so it was undeniable that he is happy and loved. i don't mean this in any sappy sense either. the guy, dressed in dark brown, radiates energy like a god.
when his band mates come on stage they too are confident and grounded. and they are united. they are Adrian's "back men", sure, but they are more. there is something else going on here than just musicians playing music. if i hadn't heard this idea from Adrian himself (i was given the honor of interviewing him on the phone earlier this week - that will be published soon at Ground Control too) i may not have gotten this deeper realization tonight. these "kids", Eric and Julie Slick are not just happenstance sessions players Adrian found that were looking for work. Eric and Julie are brother and sister who have been playing music together since they were small children. they grew up in a house of music. they know each other extremely well and know how to read each other. their unity together, and with Adrian, is uncanny and powerful. there is never a missed note or beat in the shows i have seen.
ok, now this is where my deeper understanding of this union comes out. this power they have, it seemed to me, tonight, to be beyond human. it seems to be super-human, or even super-natural. i've talked about this before, this experience of my "third eye" opening. well it opened tonight but in a strange and different way than it has before. normally the eye seems to open from the inside of my head and i start to look outward to the future worlds that lay before me. tonight though, i felt the eye open from the outisde; as if someone had placed their thumb on the space between my eye brows and was pushing with great force. this made me close my eyes and look inward; almost as if i were entering a meditative and contemplative state. LIKE I USED TO EXPERIENCE AT THE ASHRAM! like i did when i sat before the guru and meditated. then i thought, is Adrian a guru? he certainly is a master in the use of his tools. but then i forced my eyes open and looked at the stage again.
there was Eric, sitting perfectly upright at his drum set - spine erect and straight but his arms were wailing away like a dervish on his drum set. he was stoic, solid and grounded; immovable by any external distraction. and he looked only two places; at Adrian and at Julie. he is the anchor of the trio. then there was Julie on the opposite end of the stage. (by the way, i swear to Zeus and all other esoteric gods, she is the most amazingly talented bassist i have ever seen. she is mesmerizing to watch.) she moves around like an animated muse, no gesture unintended she is the life force of the trio. but Adrian, oh Adrian... he is the sprite, the elf, the lost boy in the toy store after hours who gets to play wildly with abandon. they are a trio. a spiritual trio. they complement each other. are they the same being in three different bodies though? a holy trinity? The Brother, The Sister and The Holy Ghost? or maybe a musical incarnation of Vishnu (Adrian), Shiva (Julie) and Brahma (Eric). i'm thinking that maybe they are!!!
after the performance i realized that my consciousness had been turned so strongly inwards that i found it hard to walk or to speak. it was a great night to be gregarious and communicative. i had brought gifts for each member of the trio and luckily was able to hand them to each one. but when i got near Eric and Julie and Adrian i just couldn't make my mouth work. i don't even know if they knew that i was me! Daryl. i don't think Adrian knew that i was the guy that interviewed him earlier this week because i couldn't get the words to introduce myself out of my head. i just wanted to go sit down somewhere alone and meditate, the power of their performance was so amazing...
there was even an attractive young woman that stood near to me during the performance, who afterwards approached me and acted friendly. pretty and smart looking yet i just couldn't engage. dumbfounded!
in closing, i did actually shoot about 1200 exposures tonight. that should provide us with at least 300-400 good exposures. watch for them to start to appear on my website (daryldarko.com) and in Flickr over the next few days.
next amazing thing was meeting Renee (Tickledrop) in line. in fact, i didn't even take 2 steps from the ticket window when she walked up to me and called out my name. i have only seen this woman once before and that was in Santa Cruz at the ABPT show back in November 2006. first thing she said was to comment on, how in my blog i talked about coming off meds. she said that she could tell that a definite change had occurred in my countenance, that i seemed more "connected to the earth" i think she said. i took that to mean that i seemed grounded. i agree. anyway, she was all over me with compliments and attention as if we were old friends. she herself is so easy to be near. i would have loved to, well many things... she kept smiling at me in the crowd and asking if i was enjoying myself... it was obvious i think that i was. and she had gifts for me too! a beautifully designed ABPT tee-shirt and a new Adrian Belew button! there is something more that she said to me that i will relate later.
next amazing thing, someone puts their hand on my shoulder from behind while i was standing by the stage waiting for the show to start. "Dr. D!" the voice calls out. I turned around and it took me a second to remember who it was. it was the voice more than the face i remembered. it was a man named "Greg" that i had met at the 2006 Santa Cruz show too. that meeting was very unusual because he had walked up to me at that show and said he knew who i was from my blog! he had never commented on my blog so i had no idea who he was but he knew all sorts of things about me. see? just when you think that no one reads your blog there really are people out there that do. it was good to see him. he had brought his 10 year old son to the concert tonight; his first ever. good call i said. i am sure i will see "Greg" and his son at the next Belew concert too!
OK... now, thoughts about the performance. i wasn't moved to tears tonight the way i was at The Waterboys concert in October. and i didn't start to wander into a hypnotic mental trance the way i did last week at Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, but something else spiritual did happen to me during tonight's concert. i was standing face to face with POWER. and i don't mean that in a light or filial sense. when Adrian Belew walks on stage he comes out with POWER radiating out of him; out of his eyes, out of his smile, out of his demeanor, and it is undeniable that he feels healthy, but more so it was undeniable that he is happy and loved. i don't mean this in any sappy sense either. the guy, dressed in dark brown, radiates energy like a god.
when his band mates come on stage they too are confident and grounded. and they are united. they are Adrian's "back men", sure, but they are more. there is something else going on here than just musicians playing music. if i hadn't heard this idea from Adrian himself (i was given the honor of interviewing him on the phone earlier this week - that will be published soon at Ground Control too) i may not have gotten this deeper realization tonight. these "kids", Eric and Julie Slick are not just happenstance sessions players Adrian found that were looking for work. Eric and Julie are brother and sister who have been playing music together since they were small children. they grew up in a house of music. they know each other extremely well and know how to read each other. their unity together, and with Adrian, is uncanny and powerful. there is never a missed note or beat in the shows i have seen.
ok, now this is where my deeper understanding of this union comes out. this power they have, it seemed to me, tonight, to be beyond human. it seems to be super-human, or even super-natural. i've talked about this before, this experience of my "third eye" opening. well it opened tonight but in a strange and different way than it has before. normally the eye seems to open from the inside of my head and i start to look outward to the future worlds that lay before me. tonight though, i felt the eye open from the outisde; as if someone had placed their thumb on the space between my eye brows and was pushing with great force. this made me close my eyes and look inward; almost as if i were entering a meditative and contemplative state. LIKE I USED TO EXPERIENCE AT THE ASHRAM! like i did when i sat before the guru and meditated. then i thought, is Adrian a guru? he certainly is a master in the use of his tools. but then i forced my eyes open and looked at the stage again.
there was Eric, sitting perfectly upright at his drum set - spine erect and straight but his arms were wailing away like a dervish on his drum set. he was stoic, solid and grounded; immovable by any external distraction. and he looked only two places; at Adrian and at Julie. he is the anchor of the trio. then there was Julie on the opposite end of the stage. (by the way, i swear to Zeus and all other esoteric gods, she is the most amazingly talented bassist i have ever seen. she is mesmerizing to watch.) she moves around like an animated muse, no gesture unintended she is the life force of the trio. but Adrian, oh Adrian... he is the sprite, the elf, the lost boy in the toy store after hours who gets to play wildly with abandon. they are a trio. a spiritual trio. they complement each other. are they the same being in three different bodies though? a holy trinity? The Brother, The Sister and The Holy Ghost? or maybe a musical incarnation of Vishnu (Adrian), Shiva (Julie) and Brahma (Eric). i'm thinking that maybe they are!!!
after the performance i realized that my consciousness had been turned so strongly inwards that i found it hard to walk or to speak. it was a great night to be gregarious and communicative. i had brought gifts for each member of the trio and luckily was able to hand them to each one. but when i got near Eric and Julie and Adrian i just couldn't make my mouth work. i don't even know if they knew that i was me! Daryl. i don't think Adrian knew that i was the guy that interviewed him earlier this week because i couldn't get the words to introduce myself out of my head. i just wanted to go sit down somewhere alone and meditate, the power of their performance was so amazing...
there was even an attractive young woman that stood near to me during the performance, who afterwards approached me and acted friendly. pretty and smart looking yet i just couldn't engage. dumbfounded!
in closing, i did actually shoot about 1200 exposures tonight. that should provide us with at least 300-400 good exposures. watch for them to start to appear on my website (daryldarko.com) and in Flickr over the next few days.
Comments
So yeah, I had some issues that left me feeling like Slim's is losing my respect also. I won't go on about it, but I do relate dude.
It was nice seeing you again. Did the t-shirt fit? It is one of only a couple handfuls. I'd love to see your picture wearing it.
I hope it wasn't invasive to bring up your drug use. In fact, what I wanted to discuss with you was about your quitting psychoactive drugs. I know that is very personal and in no way did I mean to intrude or invade your space. Hopefully I did not, but it's cool to tell me if I did. What I meant about you when I said that you seemed more down to earth was that you didn't seem so distant. When I saw you in Santa Cruz you intrigued me, but you also had this distance about you, especially in your eyes. It wasn't a dazed look, more like a blank stare. I could just tell that you were off somehow. I really don't like some of the stuff I've seen go on with these very heavy duty chemicals. They are mind and life altering. They steal the essence of life. Don't get me wrong. When drugs are positively effective, I have no issues, but so many times it's a way out from really dealing with people and their issues. Kind of like people feeding kids junk and then drugging them when they experience negative side-effects from eating junk. Back to life I say -- good diet, good exercise, good brain food, good books and health and happiness. That's what needs to be shared with kids, not junk, especially mind fucking altering drug junk. Sorry to get so off track. What was it I heard way back... sex, sleep, eat, drink, dream. Give us that and we have it all!
I also liked your longer hair. *smile* You looked so much happier and healthier, really. Congratulations on that.
I will visit your Flickr in a while to see if any pictures are posted. How can I send you a couple? There's a few I really liked.