Saturday, February 07, 2009

Li'l late here: Just wanted to express my deep gratitude to MV & EE for playing a beaut of a country blues live set for a very small, rapt audience last Monday at The Lounge on Elm. It was in all honesty the most gorgeous, loud-ass performance I've seen from these kiddos yet. A few hardcore psych blues heads made it out for the festivities, including Captain Groovy (he owns every single MV/EE related CD, LP, CD-R, tape, etc, or so he claims) and his pal Dean, SubKommander Mike and bass guru Aaron G. for what was roughly an hour of blissful psychedelic genre smashing.

This was the sixth gig I'd seen by this mystical duo (including two with The Golden Road at the last Terrastock), and the sparse turnout had me a bit worried but also feelin' kinda moon-kissed and in the now (then). Anytime you can hang out somewhere with MV & EE and not sweat anything more than having enough cash fer the merch and enough whiskey fer the glass, you're doin' all right. The set drew heavily from the new album, Drone Trailer (Di Christina), including a soaring fly-high version of "The Hungry Stones" which married Neil Young and Dino Jr. in a driving hybrid of shuffling acoustic guitars and shimmery lapsteel drone. Also completely mind-blowing -- "Huma Cosm" -- MV's epic free/slow blues number that came off like a cross between Loren Conners and a very drunk Neil Young trapped in 1974. Centerpiece "Solar Mountain" (surely THEE MV/EE EPIC DRONE JAM of recent lunar cycles) was a thing of great beauty and calm that eventually ranneth over with PSF-worthy guitar squalls that had me wondering, what if Keiji Haino sat in with The Dead just once in late 69? The banjo raga climax threw everything into serious stomping frenzy and left us all howling for more, literally. Yeah it was pretty heavy for just two people. It was in fact a sight to behold. Bought 2 tapes, 2 CDs, a little book of poetry called "Plumbers Crack." Hugs were free.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Yes i do indeed own or have everything.These days a digital download is about the same as owning.I like the package but it's the tubes that count.Speaking of which i've posted 58 of their releases on my music blog so far.And all the Natural Snow Buildings stuff.That crazy drone/psych band i was telling you about.

therealnittygritty.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

Ha tunes not tubes!!

Lee said...

Awesome....thank you!

AVZ said...

I saw MV/EE with about 6 other people once and we were just sitting on the floor, drinking beer and eating baklava and it was one of the top five musical experiences of my life. I guess I'm going to buy Drone Trailer right now, I've been putting it off but the Haino/Dead in '69 thing got me a little tingly and I just got paid, so thanks for lighting the fire under my arse.