Guitar Oblique: Torn/Reid/Sharp

["andre" <andre@monmouth.com>]

fri 3/13/98
Knitting Factory
Vernon Reid, Elliott Sharp, David Torn

ahh, friday the 13th was very lucky for me...

what a show! 3 of me very fave iconoclast string wranglers in  a nice,
small room with impeccable sound...

they did 2 pieces, one about 55mins, the other under 10 mins. Hope it all
comes out someday - the first piece was a journey thru a lot of textures
and moods... - amazing how in the genre, sideby side - individuality shines
thru - 

elliott # tended to stay rhythmic, setting up loops of his tapped neck,
kinda stickish at times, occas. he would slide in a pedal steel note
cascade..... torn made those mystery loops, sometimes they wouldn't hit ya
for a while!!, and that distorto - tone! nothin like it (he's a shredder in
torn clothing)-  he also caused some cool random feedback to exist, with
tha cool little mic-to-amp trick....vernon started out with a little, clean
bluesy line, in general he jumped all around, from soundgarden VG8 ostinato
crunch chords to a beautiful, bluesy interlude, while DT painted a cloud...
VR also kicked in a tiny amount of triggered synth - or guitar/vg8 that
sounded synthlike, whatever..  DT kicked the oud out at one point - whew!!!
 what an exquisite instro!! the fretless wonder of it all...... musically,
a quick journey to the desert ensued, with vernon goofing behind his back,
until DT caught on and joined in the laughter...!! Elliott seemed a bit
serious thru it all ( maybe that's his expression, he's actually very
funny) while DT and VR especially, cracked up and had a grand ol' time....

what i like the most was that nothing got old - they really listened to
each other - ideas were supportive and would change just at the right
time... and everyone was 'featured' with out it being a selfconscious MY
TURN!MY TURN!! kinda thingie...

left to right we had DT, VR, E#. DT with his beautious Klein and infamous
rack (mostly a large mixer) plus of course the echoplex, vortex and i
forget what else...and unique pedalboard - incl. all kindsa little goodies,
delays, autowah, TC flange(?) and rivera amp, mebbe a fender too, not sure.
etc Vernon used & abused one o' his many Hamer axes - w/built in roland
GK-2A pickup, he had a VG-8 and a roland multiFX (the real cool one with
the screen and the exp-pedal)-plus some kinda sequence driving ensoniq -
the ASR-X (??) E# had his cool custom many stringed guitar-bass, a mac
laptop which provided some sickness d & b grooves - he played thru a fender
amp, plus a few delay pedals, boomerang, etc. also on his watch was a nice
pedal steel.....

so there ya have it - wish ya coulda been there.....can't wait for april 18
- DT returns with the mighty B.L.U.E. - Bruford Levin Upper Extremities....
2 shows!!! be there, i will! i will! (check www.papabear.com for info on
this new CD)
did anyone tape the audio off the net??? i'm supposed to hear from someone
who taped it live...

andre' of the east



** check out the new site for the zappa tribute band i play guitar in..
PROJECT/OBJECT
it is  http://www.jswd.net/projectobject

incl link for JFK'S LSD UFO - our avant-bizarre duo, dreamscapes to
nightmare soundtrax

pictures, soundbites, dates upcoming with 10 year zappa guitarist/vocalist 
IKE WILLIS...
andre@monmouth.com