Tap Dancing

Since there is nothing to talk about in the NBA at the moment I might as well don the tap shoes and get busy. I was pretty happy with my predictions for the most part this season (excluding my 10-5 playoff record). The teams that I missed on I didn’t miss on by much, although being wrong on 9-10-11 in West would have looked better than 10-11-12. Only four teams from the East would have made the playoffs in the West whereas three sides that didn’t make it in the West would have qualified in the East.

EAST

I had in…

5. Milwaukee Bucks – I had high hopes for this group but a combination of injuries, chemistry and a key player regressing did them in. First off they lost 277 man-games to injury which led the NBA. Then GM John Hammond added questionable character guys in Corey Maggette, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Drew Gooden, Keyon Dooling and Earl Boykins. Lastly Andrew Bogut (right elbow) was flat out not right as his drop in PER from 20.81 to 16.77 shows. Even though they finished 9th I think Coach Scott Skiles needs to go. If his message isn’t old by now surely his team being dead last in shooting (43%) is.

I had out…

9. Philadelphia 76ers – They performed to what I thought was their absolute ceiling and credit goes to Coach Doug Collins who certainly got the most of them. An underrated factor in them finishing .500 was that they almost had no injuries to their key rotation players.

WEST

I had in…

6. Houston Rockets – Yao Ming and Aaron Brooks (left ankles) getting hurt in the seventh and fifth games respectively really sent them into a tailspin they were never able to get out of. I watched them a lot during the season and they were flat out awful in close games. I think Coach Rick Adelman deserved to be fired even though his squad finished 9th after going 17-8 post All-Star break.

7. Utah Jazz – After Coach Jerry Sloan and his top assistant Phil Johnson resigned on 2/10 they went 0-3 prior to trading Deron Williams on 2/23. After D-Will’s departure they went 8-17. It’s tough to compete when you lose a Hall of Fame coach and your best player over a two week span.

8. Los Angeles Clippers – They never recovered from Baron Davis showing up out of shape and pulling his left hamstring three games into the season. Then Chris Kaman twisted his left ankle eight games in so by the time Eric Gordon (right wrist) went down on 1/22 it was already over. That’s what I get for picking them yet again.

I had out…

10. Memphis Grizzlies – I had them 8th originally based on their undefeated preseason record (8-0) and moved them down, shamefully so. I was surprised by how well they stayed together with O.J. Mayo moving to the bench and Mike Conley getting a 5-year $45 million deal while Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol had to play for their new contracts. Coach Lionel Hollins deserves plenty of kudos for keeping this disparate bunch together.

11. New Orleans Hornets – After David West (left knee) went down for the year their front court depth was about to do them in until GM Dell Demps acquired Carl Landry on 2/23 allowing them to go 13-11 down the stretch. As I expected Chris Paul wasn’t the same player but I didn’t count on him adjusting his game to still be extremely effective minus his once dominant athleticism. I won’t be picking against a healthy, albeit limited, CP3 ever again.

12. Denver Nuggets – VP Masai Ujiri got WAY more in return for Carmelo Anthony than I ever dreamed he could. They also weathered the 57-game MeloDrama much better than I anticipated they would. Considering that he was coming back from throat cancer this was an excellent coaching job by George Karl.

Re:Generation in Review

Even though I’ve lived in Oregon since February of 2000 I hadn’t been to Horning’s Hideout since Leftover Salmon’s Hoedown in August of 2002. So when Re:Generation was announced I was super psyched since I hadn’t seen Sound Tribe Sector 9 (STS9) since 8/23/08. The only problem was that I couldn’t get anyone to go with me. All of my family and friends are kind of “meh” when it comes to jamtronica. Undeterred I decided to go it alone albeit staying off site at a hotel that was about 20 minutes away.

After skipping Thursday all together (had to watch the NBA draft) I arrived Friday just in time for Pigs on the Wing. The Pigs were a Pink Floyd cover band that featured David Murphy and David Phipps of STS9, Jeremy Salken and Dominic Lalli (for a few songs) of Big Gigantic , Coley Dennis of Maserati, Matt Weiss of Collective Efforts and Timi Connely from Kite to the Moon. For someone that’s not a huge Pink Floyd fan I thought these guys did a great job and kept the crowd engaged throughout.

Lalli and Salken were up next with Big G and the Colorado people in attendance made their presence known waving state flags incessantly from the front rows. As I see it Lalli’s saxophone textures over heavy beats and effects are what makes Big G unique and separates them from the rest of their electronic brethren.

My first venture to the Sawmill Stage had me seeing Lynx (Caitlin DeMuth) for the first time. Although the flow of her set seemed a little disjointed to me I found Lynx to be fun and entertaining. She switched genres and instruments between every song moving from guitar to drums to laptop while hitting folk, indie and electronica along the way. The highlight of her set had to be the tune that was just her beat boxing; the crowd totally ate it up.

Finally it was time for STS9 to hit the stage and they opened very appropriately with “ReEmergence.” “Grow” and “Move My Peeps” followed and got both the crowd and the band’s nervous energy out. Dom Lalli came out mid set and added his sax to “Empires” and “Jam > Firewall.” At this point in the set I was feeling a little bit of “meh” myself but STS9 closed the show very strong and this was definitely a precursor of things to come. “Tap-In” shook off any sit in blues people may have had but it was really “Mischief of a Sleepwalker” that grabbed the crowd and ramped up the energy level even more. “Inspire Strikes Back” closed the set out but it seemed to me that the boys were just finding their groove and heating up.

I caught a little of Paper Diamond (Alex Botwin) next and his set was extremely heavy on the in your face “whomp-whomp” (the only way I can describe it). Big beats and a fast pace seemed to be his thing but I prefer his work with the seemingly now defunct Pnuma Trio. I headed back to my hotel opting to skip Bassnectar who I later found out drew the biggest crowd of the entire weekend which only reinforced my decision to pack it in.

Day two started off for me with Eliot Lipp. Even though DJs aren’t really my thing I rather enjoyed Lipp’s style. He wasn’t just “whomp-whomp” at all. Instead he had more of an even paced down-tempo groove that I probably appreciated more than most of the youngsters in attendance.

I had big expectations (which can be dangerous) for my 14th Lotus show and their set did end up featuring a few very nice jams. Namely “Plant Your Root,” “Jump Off” and “Bubonic Tonic. “ All three got out there in a good way before coming back home. The set closing “Shimmer > Flower Sermon > and Out” sandwich seemed a touch rushed to me but it still brought the show home in style.

I was especially geared up for a two set STS9 show on a Saturday night in what can only be described as an idyllic setting. I think “This, Us” was picked to open the show more for the symbolism of the title than the actual music (much like “ReEmergence” from night one). It didn’t matter since things went completely crazy when “Instantly” dropped. Nothing starts up a show like a shot of “Instantly” adrenaline. “Shock Doctrine” kept the momentum surging and “Frequencies 2 > 3” was the first number that made my inner setlist geek smile. “When the Dust Settles” was the first of four new tunes (to my ears anyway) played on the night and closed the set out on a very high note.

Set two got started with another great opener “The Unquestionable Supremacy of Nature.” After the wildness of “TUSON” ended the second new song “Golden Gate” popped up. “Gate” was short but sweet and showcased STS9’s ability to craft a song that doesn’t rely on big bass or soaring peaks. The next highlight for my inner geek was “Water Song” which even contained the thunder and rain samples at the beginning. “Aimlessly” featured a reworked start-stop intro that to me really defined the patience and confidence STS9 played with all weekend. “20-12” was far and away my favorite of the new tunes and included a down right nasty refrain that really went over very well with Saxton Waller’s light show. “Scheme” was the last of the new numbers and while good it didn’t impress me like the others did. The double encore of “Breathe In” and “We’ll Meet in Our Dreams” sent the crowd into the night in a state of sheer bliss.

I had heard lots of good things about Beats Antique prior to seeing them for the first time and they certainly delivered. I’d describe them as Middle Eastern electronica with multi-instrumentalist David Satori leading the way. But it was belly dancer Zoe Jakes that really stole the show and gave them that little extra added something of uniqueness. I left their set a little early only to have the car behind me get pulled over in the city of North Plains…maybe I will camp next time.

I think everyone at the festival was looking forward to STS9’s “Axe the Cables” acoustic set. Acoustic should be used lightly though since Murph and Hunter Brown were still plugged in, but Phipps played piano and Zach Velmer and Jeffree Lerner used stripped down kits. “Equinox” was the ideal opener on this beautifully sunny day and “From Now On” was executed perfectly and sounded especially crisp. “Moon Socket” was completely different in this setting and I found myself questioning why it was dropped so early in the set. Little did I know what they had in store to close things down. Next came three songs from the soundtrack of the movie “All God’s Children Can Dance” with “South of Here” being my favorite. The closing sequence began with a version of “Circus” that absolutely threw the crowd into a frenzy. But the boys weren’t done dropping the Boards of Canada’s “Roygbiv” that segued nicely into “Dance.” Nobody walked away from this set displeased with what they saw.

I caught some of Portland’s own Emancipator (Doug Appling) next and he was pretty good. Break Science (Adam Deitch and Borahm Lee) sounded like Big Gigantic minus the saxophone to me and by this time ESKMO (Brendan Angelides) came off like all the other DJs I had seen over the weekend.

I was very much ready for STS9 by the time night rolled around and the “Really What?” opener got the party started right. “Kamuy” and “Peoples” kept everyone moving and grooving and then came a double dose of geekdom in the form of “Crystal Instrument” and “STS9.” I love the song “Orbital” as much as the next Tribe fan but I thought they bobbled what should have been the fiercest change of the evening.

Set two featured a nice opening combo of “Be Nice” and “Abcees” but it was a raging “Hubble” that was the apex of the final stanza. The attempted segue of “8 & a Extra” into the conclusion of “Moon Socket” didn’t really come off and derailed some of the momentum that the start of the set had built. Even with things slowing down slightly a beast of an “EHM” closed things down right and the “Baraka” encore was very fitting.

The turnout for the weekend was approximated at around 2500 and even if that is lower than the band had hoped for I still think the festival overall had to be considered a success. I couldn’t get over how much STS9 had progressed since I last saw them (I’ve seen them 35 times since 5/22/99). There was just a certain maturity and poise about how they played and nothing ever felt forced or rushed. They also did a masterful job of mixing up their setlists to cover the entire breadth of their career. It seemed that both Bob Horning and the band were primed to come back next year and I know everyone that was there hopes for the same.