MOG

The Bad Plus stole the entire cake last night at the MFA. The show was quite inspirational, transcending all expectations. I am not so familiar with the band, but on the suggestion of a friend whoose musical tastes I trust, I bought the somewhat expensive $20 ticket, blind (or deaf) to the band in particular. I held off from listening to anything before the show. These three guys come out and are start a set which was literally mind blowing. I don't mean to be a show snob, or even to know much about music, but after a slightly less than exciting Slip show on friday, this was more than required to bounce back. They play a sort of free form jazz with some pop rock sensiblity, and a whole range of dry humor. Really, the show was funny too. The piano player, Ethan Iverson introduced the songs with some wit, explaining some of the themes or thoughts that developed them, which was ironic because all of the songs are intrumental, and this produced some laughs at some points. All three players are quite talented at their instruments, but the drummer, David King has an exceptional style. He plays like a spastic octapus. Reid Anderson complements him with nimble up-right bass, contributing some wavering and laberyrinth type lines. It was inspiring. The audience was one of the most attentive that I have seen. Nobody spoke during the songs, except for a single muttered 'yeah' from someone occasionally, or appreciative clapping after a solo. They played alot of new songs apparently from an album titled "prog" to be released in May, look for that. Sometimes you go to see a band that you don't know in the hopes that you will discover something, but its rare that lightening hits and its actually something that you find you could really care quite a bit about.