On the side of the road, we saw a crazed looking vagabond who clearly hadn't showered in a millenium. As we pulled closer, we got a sense that it could be some sort of "rock musician," and as we pulled even closer, we saw his left hand aloft with a thumb protruding from his fist, as if he was saying "good job" to all the passers by on the highway. As we blew by him at 75 mph, we wished him well out the window and tossed some quarters and a bag of stale donuts his way. I checked the rearview mirror and noticed... it was Jamie! So we turned around and gave him some water, too. I, being the cynical and untrusting deviant that I am, did not want to pick up this wayward looking chap, but Beck argued something to the effect of "But it's my brother." So we begrudgingly gave the Kerouac a ride. So many risks we take, eh?
Wait, that's not what happened at all. Jamie just called us - they had gotten a late start on their trip and were about 15 miles behind us on I-17. So we pulled over and waited for the DubVan to appear. It did, and we dutifully picked up the bass-playing superstar and continued on up the mountains. Great to see James - he is very upbeat these days, loving life and embracing the road trips of GPGDS. We rode up to Kate's-rents'-house and had some time to grab showers and a few peanut butter M&Ms before heading in town to dine at a local brewery. Good stuff, though I certainly could have done with less food than the mammoth burger I got (oh, forgot to mention - this just in, I weighed in at a cool 183 at the gym that morning. Granted, this was after no breakfast and a sprint workout, but still, I am creeping back toward reasonable dimensions. My belt is yearning for an invisible 6th loop on the correct side of things. Huzzah me). We walked with jamie over to the Orpheum at about 6:30, where he walked in the back doors because that's what people who say "I'm with the band" do. Beck and I had an hour or so to kill so we walked around downtown Flasgstaff and eventually settled on a little indie music store, where we listened to the debates ("that one" and "nu-q-lar power plants on submarines" stuck out as the "whaaaaaaa?" moments) and I bought Remember by the Fiery Furnaces.
(WARNING: The Fiery Furnaces Remember will make you question your sanity. Quickly, they have a habit of *completely* rearranging their songs from concert to concert. Meaning that the melody barely stays intact, and the underlying riffs and rhythms and mood chords are worlds apart on any two versions of a particular song. On this album, they took multiple live performances and spliced them together. This is artistically mind-blowing and unprecedented to my knowledge for a live album - I mean, sure, people splice in studio footage with live, but they don't just mash together 17 remarkably different versions of the same song onto one track. The result is gorgeous, but it is also a bit like living between the ears of someone with some seriously fluid associative capabilities, with this loose line of lyrics tying things together. Highly recommended, but man oh man, be sure to buckle your brain belt).
Getting back to the central narrative, Beck and I got to unopened doors which allowed for this shot:
We were waiting in the pleasantly cool air, barely hearing the tones of the GPGDS soundcheck when a band of three hippie girls walked up. "Oh, that's James's voice!" one of them chirped. Beck beamed with pride as the bassist's brother. Turns out that two of these chicas are big time groupies of the band - or if not groupies in the Behind the Music with Whitesnake sense, certainly groupies in the "we follow the Dead" sense. Yet another sign that Panda is seriously on their way.
The doors opened late, and we strode in as official VIP "on the guestlist" types. The start time got pushed back a half hour, so Jamie hung out with us in the front row of the theatre. He had access to plastic cup beer, too, which made for a nice evening. Les hombres went on at about 8:30, and INSTANTLY they fulfilled the general pattern - every time I see these guys, they get better and better. This is roughly the 7th time I've seen a Panda show - and yes, that includes our pre-wedding bash - and it just gets more and more fluid, confident, precise, punchy, vibrant.They strode on stage and launched right into it - in huge contrast to the sophomoric antics of the opening band we saw for Vampire Weekend a couplel weeks back, GPGDS owns the place whether you've seen them before or not. They are not an "opening band," they are "the other act on the bill." Just ridiculously impressive, tight, beaming, excellent sounding groove dub reggae thrown down sans hesitation. Just great. But why write, in this media age, when I can show!!! Here's a full eight minutes of stellar Panda song "Missing You More," recorded on my Fuji camera with terrible audio quality.
Superstunning. The groove was infectious, in a kind of "do the reggae robot" kinda way. One of the groupie 3 mentioned above existed entirely in 30 second bursts of robot fury dance. I knew words would never suffice, so here is surreptitious footage of some seriously inspired grooving:
Great, great set, though only an hour long. Highlights included well, the entire thing, but I particularly enjoyed the above MYM and their hyperspeed version of "Seasons Change." Fun fun times - jamie came out and hung out with us a bit while we waited for John Brown's Body to take the stage. They're a different style of reggae outfit - their horn section is the obvious thing, but they also feature less group dynamic singing and more of a "guy singing / rapping over the top of his accompanying band" aesthetic. I prefer the GPGDS, not to say that JBB was bad - they put on a high energy, musically tight and inspiring show, too, and their horn section killed. (I especially enjoyed the trumpeter's dinosaur dancing antics and the fact that I now know that the answer to the question "What the hey is Blossom's Joey Lawrence up to these days?" is "playing Trombone for John Brown's Body." Exciting - we were pretty tired after our day that had started at 5:00 AM, so we only made it through about half of the set before heading home. Jamie et al were headed for Utah the next day, so we said goodbyes to him and all the band members and rejoined the real world.
So, so excellent to see James and another fantastic show from the band. If you'd like to share in the virtual experience, might I recommend downloading a show of theirs from 2006 in Colorado - the audio quality is superb, and you'll get a good feel for some of their work. You can even listen to it from a player on that page! So really, even if you are technologically inept, you can handle that. And, if you are one of these kinds that thinks "but I don't know the songs," then you should check out a GPGDS cover treatment of some tunes: Easy Wind and Dire Wolf are two Dead tunes they do up right. I'll close this out with the usual photo montage of the night (and, per usual, I had some trouble with the aperture / shutter setting, so some of these are a little fuzzy and / or lowlit. One of these days I'll get my Greg on and shoot a show with some high Q stuff. For now, these ain't half terrible):
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