By contrast to previous years, not a lot going on in the Northwest as far as live music this Fall. Indicative of this is that, for the first time in nearly two decades, I'll not be purchasing a single ticket for any performance in Earshot Jazz Festival. As this year, there's simply nothing of the caliber or international scope that they've traditionally hosted. Previous years have seen fringe loosely-defined-as-Jazz avant luminaries and improv adventurers like Peter Brotzmann, Mats Gustafsson, Nels Cline, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Paul D. Miller, the Chicago Thrill Jockey improv label-scene, Ikue Mori with Zeena Parkins, the electrified Congo in the form of the ensemble Konono No.1 - to name a few personal highlights of the past half-decade. No such things going on in this year's curation. Much less any of the more classic standard names we've come to expect; no Cecil Taylor, no William Parker, no Ornette Coleman - none of that stuff. So correspondingly, no attendance from me... this sounds unduly critical, but that's just where it's at this year. Wish it were otherwise.
Good thing for Boris live then!! Unlike Earshot this year, Japan's Heavy Rockers are another story. Essential attendance for the promise of their blasting of-the-sun rock brilliance and cynicism-crushing intensity. Every time I've seen them live they've delivered the next variation on their own particular ever-mutating mix of Doom Metal, Heavy Psych, warped J-Pop, dysfunctional Bro-Rock and more recently, their own thrilling new form of Shoegaze. Yeah, the latter we first glimpsed on their Japanese Heavy Rock Hits 7" series and more recently refined on the near-perfect "Attention Please" which I had a abundance of words to say on the subject specifically the tri-album recording/release blur that was the barrage of this past summer. Anticipation is stoked for what will no doubt be some serious HEAVY ROCKING next week!
