The MMG Judge & Jury Battle of the Bands - 11/5/12

The MMG Judge & Jury Battle of the Bands - 11/5/12

"5 years of work and about 20 years of hanging around" is how drummer Charlie Watts answered the question "what do the Rolling Stones mean to you?" in an interview in the mid 80's, which not only perfectly sums up the life of being in a band, but is also a quote that often pops into my head at gigs. Usually you're given a set time to arrive, which every time is a rush to get there on time and you must NOT turn up later, only to be told "you'll be playing in a couple of hours time, just chill out yeah guys?". Well, we had got to a point where as Liatris Trio we hadn't played live for over 6 months, and although in that time we had written some great new material, done some really good recordings (including our first foray into free improvisation) & taken part in the Slackwave gatherings, the elephant in the room was that we needed to play live again before it became too alien. I saw an advert for a 'Battle of the Bands' at the Judge & Jury, which I then entered us for & I think we were all happy about the prospect of playing live again.
I was very nervous for the week before the event for quite a few reasons. First and foremost, after the caustic atmosphere of our last visit to the Judge & Jury I certainly didn't want a repeat performance of that. Also, the type of crowd that would be showing up for the other bands playing that night we didn't think would be up for our dose of jazz. Now, we often have a free jazz pioneer-inspired "oh well, fuck 'em if they don't like us!" attitude, but sometimes a very cold (and possibly angry) reception is hard to ignore. After the ordeal of our last performance at Slackspace I wanted to make sure I was all practised up, and played for a couple of hours a day prior to, and as a band we rehearsed 2 days consecutively which definitely made us as ready as possible. We were given a strict 25 minute slot, and after running through our chosen material about 5 times, came to an average time of about 22 mins so we were alright there. I was still very nervous though, and we were told to be there for 7 o'clock sharp. Unfortunately me & Annie finished work at 5:30 so it was a mad rush to get home/shower/eat/sort out all the pedals/leads/make sure I was in tune, then get a taxi there. The Charlie Watts quote was ringing in my ears as we showed up just after 7:00 to be told we were playing at 9:25...
The 'background' music now being blared over the P.A was from the likes of Fall Out Boy, and a suspect amount of stretchers in ears, floppy fringes & the 'ironic' bopping to some blues covers by the band before us made me comment to Annie "this is either gonna go one of two ways, either they'll hate us and not get us at all...or they'll love us, ha!"
We made our way up on stage for our turn and started setting up. Annie was soundchecking her electronic pads and I put my "vibe sheet" next to my pedal, which was an A4 sheet of paper with STUERMER.HOLDSWORTH.FRIPP.SUMMERS.COLTRANE.MCLAUGHLIN.
DOLPHY.HOWE.GOODSALL crudely scrawled on it, which was designed to be there for the occasional scary moment mid-way through a solo when my mind goes completely blank, so I could glance down at that and, inspired by the first name I see, get back on track. We're given the go ahead and after awkwardly reminding the crowd about voting, we launch into "Red Baron". After about 2 notes I can hear that me & Phil are noticeably out of tune with each other to the point where I think we should stop to tune up, but we carry on regardless. The audience (in my mind mostly because of the tuning issue) seem a bit perplexed and we get to the false ending to a room of near silence...oh dear.
We come steaming back in and Phil starts blazing away in his solo before Annie starts playing a more groove-based drum beat with her sampled snare & bass drum sounds cutting through loud and clear. I start my solo and, while not one of my best, warmed me up and sounded good without any terrible mistakes (and from memory, a quick glance down at 'DOLPHY' threw in some more unconventional phrases). We finish with a big ending and get a good reception which bolsters my confidence a bit. One down, 3 to go.
Before we carry on, me and Phil tune to each other, with some notes about a tone out from each other which actually illicits laughter from the front row. It's all in good fun though and we laugh it off before I dedicate the next song, "Ménage a Trois Waltz", to "anyone who's ever lived with someone who turns out to be a pain in the arse, which I think we've all felt at one time or another". We get going and I'm now very confident and playing some pretty nifty licks, with the band never sounding better, or louder for that matter. My main concern in the beginning about our lack of 'proper' drummer was that we'd never have the punch of all the bands (jazz or otherwise) that I admire, but now Annie has settled into the role properly and for the first time we sound like a real band. That may seem a strange thing to 'only just' say after being in this trio incarnation for nearly a year, but now with the addition of the volume of her cymbals and the momentum of her kick drum (not to mention me & Phil playing better than ever) we sound a lot more confident and have finally got rid of the condescending "have you not got a drummer then?" questioning. We swing into the second part of "Ménage a Trois", the smack of the snare behind me & the bass pumping a bit harder than before, I get shredding before the crashing end into his solo...Performance-wise Phil often reminds me of a petrol leak; one small spark and all hell can break lose (in the best possible way), well in this case he started his solo which was great as usual, before the audience got behind him and started whooping and screaming, which at this point was like flicking a lit match onto my clumsy metaphor. Auto-wah switched on, it took a fantastically percussive and atonal dive which made Ornette Coleman seem like Kenny G by comparison. We finish to a roomful of applause and more whooping before launching into "a cross between the Sound of Music & Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Two Suns". Marred only by Phil's bass becoming inaudible for a section, in which I mouthed "I can't hear you" at him, which he told me afterwards he misinterpreted as me hollering at him that he was playing something wrong!
We finish with "Moanin' Melon" which sounds pretty good, with my introductions of the band over a lounge jazz ride cymbal mid-song, which draws more cheering from the crowd. As we're pushing the 25 minute mark, we have to curb some of our natural instincts to jam and come to a triumphantly noisy climax, and as we get our bearings and pack away our endless leads and plugs, me & Phil both get instant praise and calls of "wow, that was brilliant man" while Annie gets told her electronic drum sounds were really unique and that they had never seen a band like us. A wave of general incredulity comes over me and not being quite able to believe just how well we had played, and how fantastically we were received by a crowd that I could safely say never owned an instrumental record, let alone a jazz one. These are the moments that make being in a band worth it, all the rehearsing, the practising alone so much until you're sick of hearing yourself play, and all the nerves about playing live, all of that is worth it.
We then treat ourselves to a well deserved (and in my case, well avoided before playing for once!) drink and discuss our personal favourite moments of the performance.
All the worrying about not playing live for so long and lack of confidence had gone out of the window, and although there was a few foibles with the sound (mainly me playing through a cranked up Marshall made me a bit too distorted at times and some of Phil's top end clarity was rounded off by the soundman), that was out of our hands and I actually really liked the fact we were playing what you could call challenging music, and we were playing LOUD. It only further cemented my opinion that trios can't be beat, and me & Annie got a taxi home smiling to ourselves with a text each from Phil saying simply "Tonight was great!"

My review of the Liatris Trio performance at the Judge & Jury battle of the bands, which was our greatest moment...so far!