Concert Review: Les Claypool w/ Hella 10/22

I arrived at The Chance Theater around 8:00, just as the doors were opening. I waited in line, in the damp, cold evening, the line growing, the rain falling. Finally got inside, there was already a good number of people inside. I found the best place I could for a view of the stage and waited for the show to start.

At 9:00 two guys walked onstage, one took up residence behind the drum kit, the other picked up a guitar. A third man cam shortly after them, he welcomed us all to the show, but before Les Claypool came out, he wanted to introduce us to Hella. That was followed by a round of applause and the two already onstage broke into this cacophonous din of drum and guitar. Shortly thereafter, they were joined by two more, one on bass, the other splitting his time between keyboards and guitar. The last guy also sang and triggered numerous samples.

At first, I did not like them at all. I also got the feeling that much of the crowd was of the same opinion. Most of the crowd just stood there in stunned, almost silence. I think I was trying to hard to find a sense of melody or sense in the music. Hella is highly experimental in a rebellion against standard musical structure kind of way. It was something akin to an auditory seizure. About halfway their their 45 minute set, I stopped looking for the melody and rhythm, and started listening to the performances. In particular, I picked up on the drum and bass work. The drumming was the most impressive portion of the performance. It was fast, frenetic, technically sound, and at a constantly fierce pace. I cannot say that I will become a fan of Hella, but I am definitely intrigued by the anti-standard that they play by.

Hella left the stage around 9:45 or so, the curtain came down and they started redressing the stage for Les Claypool. We watched as Hella's equipment was cleared from the stage and Claypool's was put into place and tested. By show time, we were all starting to get a little restless.

10:30 rolled around, the lights flashed and the stage was once again populated by musicians. The mad musical genius of Les Claypool standing amidst the drummer, percussionist, sax, and sitar. Les started off with some improv bass work, the rest of the band then joined in. What follows is nearly 2 hours of insane music, jammed and otherwise.

Before going any further, I must say that I am unfamiliar with the majority of Les's work outside of the brilliance of Primus. Needless to say, I was exposed to a lot of new music. This also left me behind the curve among the crowd, many of whom were much more familiar with what we were listening to.

Watching Les Claypool play the bass is a sight to behold, standing there in his black western style shirt and bowler hat. He has such a unique instrumental voice. I can say that I have never heard anyone play like him before, and he has surrounded himself with a group of musicians who were more than up to the task of keeping pace with him. Throughout the night Les would trade runs with the sax player and the sitar player. Each run a little more complex, and each building into a duet of sorts. Each also got their own solo segment. Most impressive of which was the sitar, it just blended so well with the other sounds emanating from the stage. Then there was the percussionists solo on the xylophone, something I had never seen in a live setting before.

Occasionally, Les would take a minute or two to comment on the crowd, at one point starting up a conversation with one of the pit denizens over his mustache. Then, at around the hour mark, Les left the stage, followed by the sax and sitar. This left the percussionist and drummer to start up an extended solo segment. Speed, technical precision, and duality of work was the order of the day. After about ten minutes, Les came back out wearing a monkey mask and playing this stand up, single stringed instrument with a drum stick. The rest of the band returned shortly thereafter to play the second portion of the show.

Les Claypool and crew put on an incredible show of rock, funk, prog, and whatever else you want to call it. Honestly, I am not sure how to classify their particular brand of music. We were presented with primarily non-Primus related music, but there was also some new arrangements of Primus material, very good, using the different instruments.

Overall, it was a great night of music from the experimental edge. Still have not yet made up my mind on the technical noise soundscape creations of Hella, but Les Claypool and crew absolutely floored me. This is definitely a tour I would recommend seeing.