Bill Laswell's Bass Invaders at the Chapel, February 5, 2019

the Chapel presents Bill Laswell residency: Bass Invaders featuring Peter Apfelbaum, Hamid Drake, Josh Werner, and Jah Wobble, with Ravid Kahalani
777 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110-1734 USA
Early Show, 7:00 PM, Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2019 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2019 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[7:02 PM lights down, band out]

1. [7:02 PM] ? (unidentified tune #1)
   [just Jah & Josh at start]
   [~7:05 PM add Peter, Hamid & Bill]
   [~7:13 PM JW swaps from keyboards to bass (he'll change again throughout the night, but I don't keep track)]
   [~7:15 add Ravid: vox]
2. [7:26 PM] ? (unidentified tune #2)
   [~7:28 PM Peter plays melodica for awhile, then switches to tenor saxophone]
   [~7:36 PM Peter plays tenor and soprano saxes simultaneously for a few minutes before switching back to keyboards]
   [~7:41 Jah swaps to cow bell through the end of this tune]
3. [7:43 PM] ? (unidentified tune #3)
   [~7:44 PA playing flute for awhile]
4. [7:53 pm] [gimbri solo from Ravid] » [~7:55 PM] ? (unidentified tune #4)
   [~7:41 Jah swaps to cow bell again]
   [set ends 8:03 PM; the band heads offstage while the crowd hoots and hollers awhile]
   
   Encore
   [~8:05 PM, band back for a final tune]
5. [8:06 PM] ? (unidentified tune #5)
   [show ends 8:17 PM; we stamp and holler, but's all for the early show]

• Peter Apfelbaum: soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute, melodica, keyboards, percussion;
• Hamid Drake: drums, percussion;
• Ravid Kahalani: gimbri, vox;
• Bill Laswell: bass;
• Josh Werner: bass, keyboards;
• Jah Wobble: bass, cowbell.

Ting couldn't make it tonight, but Ted agreed to take her place, and encouraged me to join him in line early so as to secure optimal seating. So I pushed around my work and made space to hop on BART, then walked to the Chapel from 16th St. Station. I can tell you it was damn hard to pass by all those taco joints without a single stop, but the good Lord have me strength to resist the temptation of carne asada, chicken mole, and holy guacamole … This time! It was a mellow scene outside waiting, with no more than 20 other looks lined up by the time they let us in. Ted and I raced upstairs to claim front row center in the tiny balcony. Perfect for listening!

With that goal accomplished, we had about an hour to kick back, drink beer, and shoot the breeze with assorted friends and acquaintances. Everyone i talked to was really excited for the show, and a surprising number of folks mentioned that they were seeing multiple sets from the run. Guess I'm getting old: I only signed up for this one. Gotta balance fun things against work and other time demands, y'know?

Show time came around, and after the lights dropped, Josh and Jah enter and begin, setting the table with some dubby space FX and a fat bass line. After a few minutes, Peter and Hamid come down the stairs and enter the fray, both shaking bunches of bells, then Bill follows, and sits down to add a complementary bass line to the musical conversation.

The jam unfolds (is it a song? Heck if I know, seems like improv to me), and after about ten minutes, Josh swaps to bass – is there room for another bass line? Yep! Jah is holding down the low end, Bill is chiming along in the middle, and Josh is playing way high up on the neck. Yum!

After another few minutes, Ravid enters, singing or chanting along. My recollection is that only the very first and very last songs had any English lyrics: in my opinion, both of those suffered for it, as intelligible words demanded either undue attention (what is he singing?), or a concerted effort to ignore the singing and focus on the instrumental contributions instead.

Now and then Peter swaps between his instruments – changing as the mood fits? – dazzling the crowd at one point by wailing on both tenor and soprano sax simultaneously. Some guys do that as a trick for the crowd, but Peter managed to finesse his dual line artfully into the overall mix. I bet he has a separate brain for each hand, since later he pulled a similar stunt, playing tenor and keyboards. Show off!

Andrew Gilbert mentions this gig in an article posted at SFCV.

Tonight's photo gallery comes with extra blur, courtesy of my cellphone and shaky hands. Dang! Shouldn't have forgotten to grab the real camera!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2019 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2019 event list! ☸ On to the next event!