Just returned from a performance by Matt Molloy at the civic center here in Marin County. Guy’s pretty good; maybe some here have heard of him?
There were some other guys on stage, too – ‘The Chiefs’, or something, I think – but they kept wavering between bluegrass and Irish-like music, and it was sort of distracting, really. Also a highland pipes player with no sense of rhythm at all, little dancing girls in very, very bright costumes, and some tap-dancing fiddlers and things, all trying to take Molloy’s show from him, to my annoyance.
Okay, really: got tickets to see the Chieftains tonight from my wife for my birthday, and Molloy was something: he played an unaccompanied set (a very nice ‘stor mo chroi’, something else I forget offhand, and an ear-popping Colonel Frazier) and encored with Mason’s Apron (wow, is all). Guy knows his instrument, man. A pleasure to hear such incredible technique married to a great musical sense, and such power; I couldn’t decide whether to redouble my practicing when I got home, or just burn my flute. I’ll stick with it, for now.
As for the concert as a whole: eh. Good musicianship and showmanship surely, but the bluegrass/Irish thing doesn’t work for me, and there was a fair bit of stuff from that latest effort (I hadn’t heard that recording yet, and don’t think I need to, now). I like trad, and I like bluegrass, but this mix wasn’t rattling my saber. There really was a guest (local) GHB player who just couldn’t find, or hold, a beat : the bodhran player tried to give him a hand, but finally gave up on him, and resorted to just holding a rumbly noise to accompany him – painful.
The real fun, aside from Molloy, was: 1) watching my wife watch the dancers – she’s a dancer herself, and really dug the two styles on display, which are new to her (Irish and Cape Breton-style dancing; wife does jazz and middle eastern dance), and 2) the old dude behind me, who had apparently set himself up as an expert on Irish music and kept giving little critiques to the lady beside him, in a rather loud old-man voice. This sort of thing used to bug me, but now just amuses me (wasn’t there an Abbott and Costello song to that effect?). After Molloy’s fireworks on Colonel Frazier, the old codger said: “That was pretty good; he only missed a couple of notes,” (“Which ones?”, I almost asked) and after one of the full-band sets, said, “Did you notice they don’t play the songs the same way each time? That’s because they can’t read music, so they’re not always together; they’re all self-taught.” And so on. It was pretty funny, really.
However, even though a lot of the music wasn’t up my alley, it was still a pleasure to see the performance, and hear some of the tunes. I guess one learns how to work a crowd pretty well when you’ve been doing it for over forty years. The audience was adoring. Certainly worth seeing (though aside from Molloy’s stunning solos, my favorite recent concert was a local jazz band playing Raymond Scott tunes – great stuff!)
That Matt Molloy guy, though; he’s pretty damned good. . .
–Aaron
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