Tortoise at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (09 March 2016)
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03/15 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair #
03/16 – New York, NY @ Poisson Rouge # 03/17 – Brooklyn, NY @ Littlefield # 03/18 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts # 03/19 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat # 03/20 – Charlottesville, VA @ The Southern # 03/21 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel # 03/22 – Louisville, KY @ Headliners Music Hall # 03/23 – Newport, KY @ Southgate House # 03/24 – Indianapolis, IN @ Radio Radio # 04/26 – Boise, ID @ Radio Boise Tuesday 04/27 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile 04/28 – Vancouver, BC @ Imperial 04/29 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall 04/30 – Sonoma, CA @ Sonoma Winery 05/01 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American 05/02 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom 05/03 – Solana Beach @ Belly Up 05/04 – Phoenix AZ @ Desert Daze 05/06 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk 05/08 – Dallas, TX @ Dada 05/09 – St. Louis, MO @ Ready Room 05/10 – Chicago, IL @ Metro 05/11 – Lawrence, KS @ Granada Theater 05/12 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird 05/13 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge 05/14 – Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad 05/27 – Torino, IT @ Cap10100 05/28 – Brescia, IT @ Latteria Molloy 05/29 – Munich, DE @ Feierwerk 05/30 – Frankfurt, DE @ Das Bett 05/31 – Paris, FR @ TBA 06/01 – Koln, DE @ Kulturkirche 06/02 – Besancon, FR @ La Rodia 06/05 – This Is Not A Love Song Festival 06/06 – Toulouse, FR – Metronum 06/08 – Metz, FR @ Les Trinitaires 06/09 Tourcoing, FR @ Le Grand Mix 07/03 – Keflavik, IS @ ATP Iceland 07/05 – Berlin, DE @ Columbia Theater # w/ Mind Over Mirrors
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The Chicago band’s music defies any standard categorization, one song will sound like Steely Dan-esque explorations in jazz, the next song right out of a 70’s Western, the next a psychedelic-tinged riff-driven song.
The instrumental quartet (Dan Bitney; Doug McCombs; Jeff Parker; John Herndon; John McEntire) has a unique set up (two bass guitars, three percussionists switching between drums, vibraphones and marimbas) that often had the band playing musical chairs, swapping instruments and switching places between songs.
The longtime post-rock band (in existence since 1990) is out in support of their recently released, The Catastrophist (Thrill Jockey Records), which even includes their take on the David Essex classic, ‘Rock On’ though we didn’t hear that one performed live this night.
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Mind over Mirrors
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Local act Dosh opened the evening, then Mind over Mirrors (aka Indian pedal harmoniumist/electronicist Jaime Fennelly) played in dim red lighting, with his gear in the middle of the venue floor. The Chicago-based artist released The Voice Calling last year (on Immune Recordings), and has an album due out next year, on Paradise of Bachelors.
The result transfixed the audience with its sweeping electronic sound, sounding very much like a 35 minute science fiction movie soundtrack as the crowd surrounded him on all sides, like a camp fire.
Tortoise took the stage next for their 80-minute headlining set it was without fanfare or circumstance, just five musicians displaying their highly technical craft on stage.
And, like the tortoise in the famous fable, the band takes its time musically to get to a destination; not a bad thing at all, because the sonics involved in the journey are often revelatory.
There wasn’t very much conversation between songs at all- a short “thanks, humans” after the first four songs and a short humorous story about percussionist McEntire hearing the band on his local radio station… but the DJ getting the song title wrong.
Anchored by the percussionists, the guitars punctuated the songs with the various other instruments (vibes, samples, marimbas) adding more worldly flavor.
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Tortoise’s set list
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At just over the hour in, the band left the stage, but returned shortly for a two-song encore. Known for some creative interpretation live, their set list resembled a secret-coded bingo card—rows along the top marked with letters A-K and three-letter abbreviations for each song.
Methodical and multi-faceted, this Tortoise won the race this night, its instrumental soundtrack fitting for a late winter mid-week night in Minneapolis.
Tortoise’s The Catastrophist is available now on Thrill Jockey.
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Tortoise at Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (09 Mar 2016) |