Loop in London

I got to travel to London in May with Clogs to perform on the Steve Reich Reverberations Festival hosted by the Barbican. What a fantastic time! We performed alongside the Kronos Quartet, eighth blackbird, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Nico Muhly, and many other uber-talented artists. A great opportunity and a great tribute to Mr. Reich.

One of the special things for me was making the London premier of Underground, a Loop 2.4.3 piece from Zodiac Dust, as a duo version with Bryce Dessner (Clogs, The National). A big thanks to Bryce for giving this a go in short order - not an easy piece!

There was a detailed review of the Clogs set by QRO magazine - find it online HERE.

Loop at the Lyric in NYC

We've had some really fun shows the last couple of weeks and one of the highlights happened to be right here in New York City. The room we played in for the Lyric's salon series on Manhattan's Upper East Side was simply fantastic! A medium sized room with a high ceiling, and everything was dark wood. The acoustics were superb. Resonant, but controlled. We had to hold back a little bit on some of the powerful drumming bits in Chickchi, but otherwise were able to achieve great dynamics. The concert was recorded and may appear on NPR down the road...we'll pass on any news.

The other great thing about this show was the mix of people in the audience. There were a large number of Upper East Siders in their 60's, 70's, and 80's who were ecstatic about the show and stuck around to chat afterwards. There were some young artists from SOHO who just randomly heard of the show and came up, and then some hardcore Loop fans from the West Village, Brooklyn, and even Connecticut. There were a few small children, so the age range was huge. I find this type of communication across generations to be really exciting.

Wait a minute, there was one more really great thing about this show - Christian Hebel joined us on violin. This was our first collaboration with Christian and we're looking forward to more. He performed on Zodiac Dust and Epilogue. Epilogue involves a good deal of improvisation in a non-traditional fashion, and Christian played some really beautiful music. Thank you!

We would also like to thank Joan Kretschmer, and Julia Reinhart at the Lyric Chamber Music Society for all of their support. Joan took a big chance by programming us on a very classical/romantic series, and it was a huge success. Our humble gratitude for all you do.

coming up....Thom is headed to London to perform with Clogs for a Steve Reich 75th birthday celebration festival at the Barbican. We'll try to get some pictures...Lorne is working with Tom Burnett and James Godwin for our next NYC show on May 25. Hope to see you soon!

Another highlight was the show with Clogs at The Bell House in Brooklyn. The only NYC performance of songs from ‘The Creatures…’ in 2010! Special thanks to Shara Worden and Sufjan Stevens for coming to sing! View PHOTOS and COMMENTS about the show.

Loop 2.4.3 with Clogs

Early in 2010 we played several shows with Clogs. Here's a highlight:

Friday, February, 19, 8pm
Loop 2.4.3 with Clogs
Southern Theater
1420 Washington Ave. South, Minneapolis, MN 55454
The duo performed a short set and then performed with Clogs. As a founding member, Thom has been with Clogs for 11 years! Their new album, The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton, was named one of the top 5 genre-defying albums of 2010. Thom participated in an interview with the Kaufman Center for Clogs’ upcoming performance at Merkin Hall. View the CLIP HERE, and the concert listing HERE.

WNYC and Chubby Checker

Played with Clogs on WNYC's Soundcheck yesterday afternoon. John Schaefer is somewhat of an institution in NY with this long-standing program. He has been a fan and supporter of Clogs for a number of years which is fabulous. It was fun to see him again and be on the air in the new WNYC studios. There was a period when I listened to this program all of the time, so it was nice to revisit that whole vibe. An added bonus was that Chubby Checker (Ernest Evans) was on before us and did about a 30min interview with John. It was really interesting to hear him talk about his goals/approach to music over the years. He was one of the first teen rock and roll sensations. This was the funniest bit of the whole thing: Earnest said that he thought it was interesting that white people liked to imitate black people when they sing - he was the opposite, as his hero was Frank Sinatra. So Chubby's approach to singing, and what gives his voice its unique character, is that he tries to imitate white people imitating black people...wow, now there's a unique approach. It was also interesting that Ernest views Chubby as a character apart from himself. This is a persona that he puts on; an old-school entertainer. He even has conversations with Chubby and critiques Chubby's behavior and decisions....

- tk