Friday, July 15, 2005

Son Volt Encores with Cortez the Killer

The ears are still ringing from seeing Son Volt's free outdoor set last night at the South Street Seaport. Being an outdoor show, I had no idea it was going to be so fucking loud. But it was. On the upshot, I can now say I've seen Son Volt, I can say that the new material off Okemah and the Melody of Riot is fantastic (including the psychedelic jammy jam "medication"), and I saw a blistering rendition of "Drown" that made the hair on my arms stand up. They came out for a single-song encore, Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer." They had barely gotten back onstage before Jay Farrar was tearing out the amazing, continuous guitar solo that makes up that song, only occasionally punctuated by haunting lyrics. (He came dancing cross the water...). The new album is a dualdisc, new music on one side, documentary film on the other.
I love seeing truly great musicianship. You couldn't get much tighter than these guys if you were the cooper son of Ra.

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