So, last year Jdavyd and I started talking - I had heard his projects and dug them, and reviewed his solo album for Amazon. Around the same time, I realized that BigChiefBC lives about ten minutes from me and we started chatting as well. Then Jdavyd said that he was planning a summer tour that would pass through New England, and asked if my band would be interested in playing. I then asked BigChief if his band would play as well, and a plan was hatched!
Fast forward a year and countless logistical twists and my band can no longer play (
), but Jdavyd's scored a second gig in the area. All right! I was able to hook his band up with a place to stay, and we got a venue for him and BigChief's twosome, Seismic Feedback, so things managed to come together. So, on Sunday, I got to see Jdavyd & the Basement Bhaktis perform at a yoga studio in Cranston, RI - they got a small crowd, but people were into it, so that went well. They played for two hours straight, and DAMN but did they bring it. For those not familiar, the Basement Bhaktis play Kirtan, a form of devotional Hindi chant. Jdavyd's added a bit of an electronic twist with synths and 808s and all that good stuff. But really, they could just be singing without any instrumentation and it would be powerful. Dude's got a VOICE, and the drones and overtones and harmonies get deep.Then, last night was the show with Jdavyd AND Seismic Feedback, this time in downtown Providence. I knew that Jdavyd and crew would be great, so this time the surprise was Seismic Feedback. I had heard their stuff on Myspace, so I was prepared to like it, but I had no idea how it would translate live. Well, this is how it translated: IT KICKED ASS!!! Seismic Feedback is BigChief on (super-effected) bass and his partner J.O. on synths & programming. Live, they sounded absolutely huge. It was amazing watching them and realizing that half of the sounds that I had assumed were made by synths were actually made by BigChiefBC's bass! At one point, he even pulled out a pair of needlenose pliers and started whacking the strings to get even more crazy glitched-out tones. Jdavyd graciously ran the PA for their set and it sounded great.
Then Jdavyd & the Basement Bhaktis played, and once again they kicked ass. It was a shorter set, but they brought out a Joy Division cover in honor of Ian Curtis' passing 30 yrs ago this year (I'm totally blanking on the song name now, but it sounded great), and the PA at the venue really let the low end in their drums & synths shine through. The crowd was, as Jdavyd put it, "intimate but enthusiastic," and did a good deal of hootin' and hollerin' at the end of the set.
All together, it was an awesome time, and I so wish my band could have played. Ah, well. Perhaps next time. I'm definitely going to lobby for Jdavyd to tour this way again, and will definitely hook up a show with my band and Seismic Feedback later on this summer. If any of you folks are on Jdavyd's tour route (http://jdavydwilliams.com/live/), I highly recommend getting out and seeing him. And keep an eye on BigChief's Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/seismicfeedback - good things are happening there! I think they'll be wrapping their album soon, so he'd better hype it around here (or I'll do it for him...).
And that's my story. Oh, and here are the pix to prove it!
- 01-SeismicFeedback.jpg (119.37 KiB) Viewed 1131 times
- Note the needlenose pliers!
- 02-BigChiefBC.jpg (103.45 KiB) Viewed 1131 times
- 03-JdavydSoundMan.jpg (135.21 KiB) Viewed 1131 times
- Note the harmonium!
- 04-JdavydBasementBhaktis.jpg (137.43 KiB) Viewed 1131 times
- Left to right: Jrmy being a dumbass, Jdavyd being serious and probably exhausted, BigChiefBC being a badass
- 05-JrmyJdavydBigChiefBC.jpg (121.19 KiB) Viewed 1131 times
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