G'N'PGDS'N'R

The past month's car and iPod playlists have all but exclusively featured the sonic stylings of Giant Panda Guerrilla Dub Squad and W. Axl Rose Guns n' Roses. They are conveniently enough very close to one another on your Artist dial, so the dramatic careening of genre has been made up for by relatively little thumb swirling. Beck and I had seen Giant Panda in Flagstaff a couple of months back, and I of course recounted my Best Buy purchase of Chinese Democracy on Nov. 23. What these little-in-common groups of music share is an INSANE ECHOING THROUGH MY HEAD. Seriously, I wake up in the middle of the night with any of a number of either band's songs pulsing, from "Shackler's Revenge" to "Paranoia" to "I.R.S." to "New Melodica Dub." I'm a little terrified that some wires are going to get crossed and Axl and Jamie will end up teaming up for "It's So Easy Way Out."

(Ladies and Gents, a joke that will only be gotten by the overlapping fanbase of G'N'PGDS'N'R!!! AKA me).

So I'll start in the family: while in Rochester for Thanksgiving week, between excellent brunches at Jines, debates about the relative independent existence of Barack Obama and about 40 episodes of 30 Rock, the iPJ+ clan (that's Meghan, Greg, Zil, Annie, Beck, iPMM, Nyet and the iPJ himself) left for the Water Street Music Hall to catch an 10:45 PM (!!!) set by Giant Panda Guerrilla Dub Squad. This was super impressive and coordinated, as nearly everyone took naps in preparation for a late night out. Jamie excellently got us VIP passes which gave us seats in the balcony over the stage. That's right, this was no mere night of body surfing amongst sweaty fifteen year olds screaming "James, I love you;" this was rolling to the club and seeing how the other half lives. We got to sit and watch the show and had a great vantage from which to snap pics or just hang out. Muy excellente.

Opening for Jamie's band was a crew called Buddhahood; they're a veteran local Rochesterian act that, for lack of a better term, plays hippie music with four to seven drummers, a horn section and the usual guitar-bass combos. Below are a couple of pics from our awesome people's eye view, taken by super photographer Greg (check out his public flash-bulb site for the complete set):

Perhaps the best thing about Buddhahood was their antics during GPGDS's setbreak. Not to get too out of chronological order here, but check out some nice shots from above of a little acoustic drum conga and horn line they started while the reggae boys took a rest (photo by Greg):

(Alright, I am going to stop thieving from Greg's photo stash now; you really should check out his photo-capturing of the night because he got a slew of great shots).

After the drum-infused mayhem stopped (seriously, I am all for polyrhythms, but it is exceedingly difficult to keep that many people in perfect rhythm and really, DAMN it was loud), the bands changed up equipment and James et al. took the stage. They came out kind of flat energy-wise, and Jamie explained that this was due to some monitor sound issues on stage; they just couldn't get into it w/o being able to properly hear themselves. Just a little lower energy than normal; I would say it wasn't until a ridiculously nice jam out of "Seasons Change" that they got their motors running. Before that, though, they threw down this "Easy Way Out" which I captured with my Fuji Cam and all it's 8 bit sound sampling glory:

Great song. That gives you a good idea of our perspective for the night; I also have a set of photos. Here are some of the highlights:

Things picked up for the second set, and all in all GPGDS put on yet another great show. They are just professional at this point, and it's been great to see / hear. Very fun night, I had a great time chilling upstairs, and I am mindblowingly impressed by the iPClan's ability to rock out til the wee hours. YEAH.

This is getting long, so tbctd.