e

[owen]

G-man, did everyone dance?
 

They settled back to have some fun
And tapped their feet in twenty-one...

[Dog_None]

Ade was wearing a cool peachy-pink shirt.

Which is hopefully a prelude to some purple suit action on Monday.

Wow! Mista Dog, you sho' 'nuff must be livin' right! Love to hear a full report on the CD release party too!

Full report?  Perhaps in due time, my friends.  For now I'll just regale you with the tale of the great joke I almost told my favorite guitarist.

So I was there with my buddy Jim (who knew nothing of Belew or the greater Crim, but coincidentally knew of Julie from her waitressing days at the restaurant) and a guy I just met named Jeff.  We were talking and having a good time when Adrian walked by.  We said "hi".  He said "hi" and then asked us our names (almost like he knew what was about to transpire.  What a genius.).  So we told him: Jeff, Jim, and...Jon (that's me!).  He seemed very excited/surprised/pleased that they all began with the same letter.  So I made some dumb comment about our alliterative names (which I think I stuttered because as anyone who has been to Crimson related show with me knows, I get a little nervous in front of the band members [and I was already a little drunk]).  He forgave my lameness and told us we should open up a ranch which was followed by some discussion of what we should be ranching.  Adrian was pretty set on horses.  I didn’t agree.  I wanted to ranch something else and my mind immediately began to focus on those weird commercials you see on late night TV sometimes offering the chance to raise some weird animals.  I just couldn’t think of what they were called.  I really, really wanted to make a joke about these animals and ask him if he could replicate their sound on a guitar.  So for a few seconds I went into a deep meditative state in order to recall the name of this animal.  Then it came: alpacas.  I wanted it to be an alpaca ranch.  So I turned in Adrian’s direction to fire my zinger.  Alas, he had moved on.  The conversation was over.  Window closed.

But that wasn’t the lost joke I’m writing about.  5-10 minutes after the above transpired, I had a moment of lucidity.  When Adrian commented on the fact that all of our names began with a “J”, I should have said:

"I guess you’ve just met the 10th verse of Elephant Talk!"

How cool would that have been?

I felt like George Costanza.

[Geno]

Sorry - didn't see any dancing. It seemed mainly like your average evening in a bar, except that there was a band working the room and offering CDs for sale (and I can't imagine most bars playing something like e on repeat all night, although it really works better for that kind of thing than it probably should). We got to pester the trio with the usual fan stuff, listen to some of their stories from Project Object and that huge festival in Russia, hear some of Robin's hilarious stories from her current stint as merch seller... that kind of thing. A nice time all around.

[sarah]

"I guess you’ve just met the 10th verse of Elephant Talk!"

How cool would that have been?

Aw, crap!  That would've been awesome.  And maybe Ade doesn't, but at least WE now know how suave and witty you are, so it's not a total loss.

~s

[Dog_None]

So I saw the band last week and they performed e in its entirety.  They indeed took it to the next level and honestly after seeing it live I didn't think I'd be able to go back to the album.  Boy was I wrong!

I've been listenting to it a lot and I like it more and more each time.  If I may take the liberty of making a whisky analogy: listening to this album is like drinking a very fine whisky.  The first sip, while enjoyable, really just gets your tongue prepared.  It's with the subsequent sips the subtleties and complexities reveal themselves.  And as you make your way through the bottle, on different days and in different moods, you really get to know the true character.  So it is with e.  except the bottle of e will never run out.

It's weird but the Crimson references become more obvious but less distracting with each spin.  Adrian has achieved something special with this album.  Maybe it hits harder after seeing it live, but on top of the music being completely kick-ass, I am completely amazing by the fact that Adrian does all of the guitar work in one take.  No overdubs.  Loops?  Yes.  But as far as I could tell at the show, there were no overdubs.  The man is a freak of nature.  I've also been focusing on the Slicks' and their contributions a little more.  I do think Adrian hit the jackpot.  They've both definitely got their own styles, although there are indeed certain parts that make you say "hey that sounds like xxx player!"  One part in particular on the final track reminds me of Phil Collins drumming (at his peak, this is a compliment).
This album seems to be both a culmination and a new beginning.  If the greater Crim never reconvene, I could live with this.

[scorched earth]

Wow that's a lot of coding, lol.

I'm looking forward to hearing the album. Actually I went to buy it when it was first released but only being able to purchase it with Paypal or a check put a stop to the transaction, leading me to wait till the band's in town next. Not that spending $55 or so one evening is going to be easy for me, but hearing a recent recording of a performance made me more eager to do so. I thought it was great that they opened with and played so much from "e", going so long without any vocal, more so than any Crimson performance, which of course seemed ironic. The Crimson references were sorta distracting for me toward the beginning, but I found myself really warming to the performance as it went on. And it's impressive as you say, that Adrian does all that guitar live with the help of looping, though I imagine on the album there was probably a little repair work punched in.

[Dog_None]

I'm sure there was some studio magic involved, but I wouldn't be surprised if the majority was done in a single take.  Of course, that's just speculation.  I guess I could have asked him at the listening party.