Living Daylights

[Dave Trenkel <improv@peak.org>]

I had the pleasure of running sound for the Seattle-based trio Living 
Daylights Saturday night. They headlined at the stage I was running 
at the Eugene Celebration, and did an amazing set. More on that later.

First of all, I need to say it was wonderful to be involved in a 
community-wide celebration after this week's events. There was a lot 
of debate as to whether the celebration would actually happen this 
year, and a number of bands cancelled, including the opening-night 
headliners They Might Be Giants. There was a lot of schedule 
juggling, and a lot of uncertainty, but there was a lot of good will 
and tolerance among everyone involved, and a real sense that we all 
needed some good music to get us all through. It was a reminder of 
why I became a musician in the first place (well, that , and to meet 
girls).

Anyway, Living Daylights are Jessica Lurie on tenor & alto saxes and 
flute, Arne Livingston on bass, and Dale Fanning on drums. Both 
Jessica and Arne use loopers, Jessica a DL-4 and Arne a JamMan. Arne 
has got to be one of the most masterful loopers that I've ever seen. 
He runs a relatively simple setup, a 4-string fretted bass (Ken 
Smith), into a tube preamp into a TC Electronics G-Force and  the 
JamMan. He sends 2 signals to the house , one channel of bass, and 
one channel of the JamMan. He also sent the JamMan output to 
headphones Dale wore. Dale would wear one side of the headphones, and 
through the other ear he'd hear everything else through his monitor 
speaker. He said that they'd worked out this system after a lot of 
trial and effort, and this allows him to lock into the loops. They 
made it all look and sound totally effortless, Dale and Arne would 
set up a groove, and the next thing I knew, the bass line was looped, 
and Arne was soloing, comping, whatever, over the top of it. I know 
this isn't a particularly revolutionary use of looping, but they did 
it so well, and so totally musically. I should also point out that 
they only really used the loopers for about 1/3 of the set, the rest 
of time was the strait-up trio, and that they rocked in that context 
as well.

Their latest CD "Electric Rosary" has Bill Frisell on it, and is 
quite nice, though a bit lower energy than live. If you get a chance 
to see them, and they do spend a lot of time on the road, don't miss 
it.
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Dave Trenkel                                New and Improv Music
http://www.newandimprov.com         improv@peak.org
                 Now Available: Minus: Dark Lit
"This is music all-consuming in its beauty and power"
                                -Jake TenPas OSU Daily Barometer
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