The Books in Concert
Last night, I went up to the City with the Nicks, Steve and Egle, and Sarah to see the Books, by far the most experimental musical artist I’ve seen. Nick has been following the Books for years now, and it turns out that he and Sarah were actually at the same concert in Philadelphia four years ago, and they didn’t even know each other back then.
The concert was part of the San Francisco Lively Arts nonprofit group, and they rent out space at the Noe Valley Ministry, a Presbyterian Church. We had dinner some blocks away in southern Noe Valley beforehand.
The opening act was actually an instrumental trio of piano, flute, and electric bass guitar. The bass guitar used an interesting effect like a sustain with reverb, reminding me actually of some sounds I’ve heard in Sigur Ros songs. The pianist had some interest “fusion” pieces, such as “ragtime and science fiction” or “bebop and dinosaurs”….yeah. Kinda neat though overall. Something different.
The Books show was an audio/visual presentation. They’ve put together these strange and varied video and picture montages and then play in front of it. One has a guitar, the other has an e-cello. I had never seen an e-cello before, so that was pretty neat.