American Conservatory Theater presents a FreshGrass Premiere—The Inaugural FreshGrass Commission, featuring Bill Frisell, Aoife O'Donovan, and Quiles & Cloud
2016-11-12
Toni Rembe Theater at the Strand
1127 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94103 USA
7:00 PM, Saturday, November 12, 2016

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[7:11 PM lights down]

1. [7:12 PM] Quiles & Cloud: Black Sky Lightning
   [pause for introductory talk by ?Chris Wadsworth?]
    
   

   Aoife O'Donovan
2. [7:19 PM] Magic Hour
3. [7:24 PM] Hornets
   [banter]
4. [7:29 PM] Porch Light
5. [7:34 PM] the King of All Birds
   [banter]
6. [7:39 PM] Magpie
7. [7:44 PM] Detour Sign
   [banter]
8. [7:49 PM] D.W. Griffith short film As It Is in Life (1910) with live AO score
9. [8:04 PM] the Lakes of Pontchartrain
   [set ends 8:08 PM; more announcements from ?Chris Wadsworth?]

[8:29 PM lights down]

1. [8:29 PM] Quiles & Cloud: Shake Me Now
   [pause for additional comments by ?Chris Wadsworth?]
    
   

   Bill Frisell Fresh Grass Quartet
2. [8:37 PM] (unidentified tune #1)
3. [8:41 PM] (unidentified tune #2)
4. [8:47 PM] Shenandoah
5. [8:52 PM] (unidentified tune #3 – sounded to me like a 60's TV theme, maybe Dragnet or Get Smart)
   [8:59 PM; banter from Bill & Petra]
6. [9:02 PM] Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
7. [9:11 PM] (unidentified tune #4)
8. [9:15 PM] Red River Valley
9. [9:19 PM] (unidentified tune #5 – blues, no Petra)
10. [9:24 PM] (unidentified tune #6)
11. [9:29 PM] (unidentified tune #7)
12. [9:32 PM] Hard Times Come Again No More
13. [9:36 PM] This Land Is Your Land
    [set ends 9:43 PM]
     
    Encore
14. [9:47 PM] Wildwood Flower
15. [9:51 PM] Single Girl, Married Girl
16. [9:55 PM] Moon River
    [show ends 10:00 PM; final words from ?CW?]

Bill Frisell Fresh Grass Quartet

• Luke Bergman: acoustic baritone guitar, harmony vox;
• Bill Frisell: guitar;
• Petra Haden: vox;
• Hank Roberts: cello, harmony vox.

• Anthony Da Costa: guitar, harmony vox;
• Steven Nistor: drums;
• Aoife O'Donovan: acoustic guitar, vox.

• Rory Cloud: acoustic guitar, vox;
• Maria Quiles: acoustic guitar, vox;
• Oscar Westesson: contrabass.

Maybe I'm reading too much into the Freshgrass moniker, but while tonight's show was an interesting melange of music, nary a wisp of bluegrass influence could be heard. Plenty of folk and Americana. Zero mandolin. No high lonesome sound.

A complaint? No, not really, just surprise. I guess I'd set my expectations on something that wasn't promised!

I thought it was kind of weird to have Quiles & Cloud open each set with a single tune, performed from the front balcony at stage right. I think they would have made a stronger impression if they'd been given space on the main stage like the other acts – even if only for a tweener set.

Aoife's set was certainly the loudest and most rocking of the night: electric guitar and drums will go far towards establishing that claim! The first half dozen tunes all came from her latest album, which seemed interesting enough, if not quite strong enough to compel me to head out to the merch table at break.

She followed that introduction with her score to D.W. Griffith's short film As It Is in Life (1910). As with the first part of the show, this worked OK for me – it was interesting to see the film and hear Aoife's reaction to it, but overall, I felt that the text of her score was a little too narrative. A case of telling the audience too much. There's no need to tell us that someone is feeling sad when we can read the emotion on their face from watching the film ourselves.

Aoife wrapped up her set with an older tune, the Lakes of Pontchartrain, and then we enjoyed a break in the action while the crew removed their equipment from the stage and made sure that everything was set up just right for Bill Frisell. After intermission, Quiles & Cloud returned for a second tune, performing again from the balcony. My guess is that most of the folks on the floor couldn't really see them because of the steep angle … I dunno. Maybe someone who sat down there will offer a comment?

Anyways, Bill's set followed, and while I'm glad I attended, my takeaway is that the material was under-developed and under-rehearsed (Petra muffed the words to This Land Is Your Land in a couple places … it's hard to imagine not knowing that song by heart; maybe she was nervous?). To me, it's one thing to say “we're gonna throw some folks together and put on a show” and quite another to say “we've commissioned a new work, here's the world premiere”. If Freshgrass had advertised the gig as the former, I probably wound't be so grumpy, but given that they didn't … well, I hope they feel like they got their money's worth.

I don't mean to say that the show was bad, but I certainly expected more than what was delivered. For example, based on my experience listening to classical music, my concept of a commission is that it implies the delivery of new work, not rearrangements of old standards. It might be the case that Bill intended the unidentified instrumentals above ought to fulfill that requirement, and that the vocal tunes were included as some sort of spice or glue or concession to the audience. I don't really know. Kim Ruehl posted an interview with Bill about this new work, but his comments therein are characteristically vague. Words aren't always necessary to justify one's actions, but judging this show by what I heard, I'll be surprised if much of it becomes established in Bill's performance canon the way his Lennon interpretations have.

You can read a bit more info about this gig on the promoter's page.

Thanks to bamjuggler for posting his version of the setlist at setlist.fm; it's nice to see we agree on identification of the vocal portion of Bill's set!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2016 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2016 event list! ☸ On to the next event!