Thirty minutes of free-jazz?! I just barfed a little in my mouth.

Comments like that make me barf in my mouth. Pretty hard to top Zorn & Ribot.

they may be tops in the scene but damn, zorn smells like wet dog.

that's sweet. Smokey is an awesome guitar player. It would have been awesome to see him, Ira, and Marc Ribot get down together though. Three of my favorite guitar players of all time in the same room. Fuckin badass!

Anyone have any ideas of who is opening tonight and tomorrow night?

Pretty bummed myself to miss this... (only going once this year, tonight) as a huge fan of Zorn and Ribot, as well as Yo La. Did John and Marc come out during the Yo La set? What did they play on?

that is an insane opener...john fucking zorn.

I wanted to like it... it just didn't have words and drums and catchy parts... ya know, music stuff, right?

You know, I LOVE experimental/noise/whatever but that was just pretentious. Yeah, boo me down, but I like to call that out, the emperor has no clothes! If only, say, 5% of the audience look like they are enjoying themselves, then why is this is a good thing? If I bang a can and mumble some words does that make me a "musical genius" and anyone else who disagrees is somehow obviously not "enlightened" enough? Puleeeeeze! Maybe you can listen to this in the privacy of your own home, or maybe you can PAY to see it if that's your cup of tea, but I was just disappointed that this was the opener. I'm sure lots of people felt the same way and were just clapping to be polite (if you weren't, well good for you, at least someone enjoyed it). If more people don't say this it's just because they are scared of not looking cool or whatever. I don't care about looking cool, I'm just stating my honest opinion here. I hope tonight's opener fares better (with me at least, cause it's my turn to enjoy something besides YLT).

"You know, I LOVE experimental/noise/whatever but that was just pretentious. Yeah, boo me down, but I like to call that out, the emperor has no clothes!"

It amazes me how so often the ignorant are not content simply BEING ignorant. They go on to outwardly flaunt their ignorance beyond the limitations of their own little existence to the point that they feel the need to display it on their shirtsleeve like some juvenile medal of honor.

You're just not listening closely enough.

if you aren't pushing your own limits as a musician or music fan, you lose.

but just as long as you stay out of my way and let me enjoy pure genius, then i don't give a fuck.

6:14 made a fair point. A lot of the fun of YLT's holiday shows are the grab bag nature of the event. Every once in a while, they throw out something that (regardless of talent) will be considered worthless to a majority of the crowd. The same thing happened last year with Endless Boogie. With all the slots they have to fill between openers and encore guests, its bound to happen once in a while. But conceptually, I have to side with the haters. Book guests to please the room, not yourself. People will choose to expand their horizons (or not) on their own time.

My friend and I went to this and I personally haven't heard their stuff but he has (he has several records) and said he had never seen them but was excited to check them out live. So I was listening with an open mind but I guess I just didn't get it. At the end of the night I told him I didn't think they were very good (YLT were awesome as usual) and he didn't berate me for being ignorant or closed minded. I asked him if he would have traded tickets for a different night if he could do it again knowing this and he said yes! I asked if he would pay money to see them alone and he said no. So there you go.

"It amazes me how so often the pretentious are not content simply BEING pretentious. They go on to outwardly flaunt their pretentiousness beyond the limitations of their own little existence to the point that they feel the need to display it on their shirtsleeve like some geriatric medal of honor."

I think BV pretty much summed it up in this quote:

"I talked to two Maxwell's attendees after the show. Both had the same sort of "I wanted to like it...I know they are amazing musicians..." kind of attitude about the 30 minute opening set."

Yeah, the two attendees, me, and 90 percent of the audience all felt the same way.

"It amazes me how so often the pretentious are not content simply BEING pretentious. They go on to outwardly flaunt their".............blah...blah...(yawn)

Nice original retort you've come up with there. It must have required a lot of thought. You keep on boxing yourself in, it is not only your own loss but it is exactly what is expected of you. Don't fret, all you've got to do is take a glance at the legions of overladen, immobile, passivity robots obediently sitting in front of their televisions and you can witness your own destiny.

In some ways, the comment that strikes me the most in this thread is "Book guests to please the room, not yourself." Doesn't anyone enjoy being challenged by music? Not saying you have to like it, but part of what's made Yo La so much more interesting to me than a lot of other bands in their orbit is that they take so many chances, keep mixing things up (remember the two albums in a row of mostly-slow, guitar-freakout free songs? those alienated some oldschool YLT fans of my acquaintance who missed not getting the same record over and over again).

One of the things I like about the Chanukah shows is the mix-and-match of different sounds and the "grab bag" nature of the "don't ask, don't tell" taken in not announcing the openers.

There are a number of performers I've seen over the years who made it a point to change the show/style/genre frequently. Sure, when I go to shows, it's because I've liked what someone's done previously, but that's the past--I go with open ears to see what they're going to offer tonight. If I don't like it, that's cool, but I enjoy being surprised. If they based their set list, opening act etc on what they thought I wanted to see, it would have been a lot less honest and exciting to me (haven't we all been to some shows that just seemed too narrow or "greatest hits"?).

And while I'm not advocating performers completely abandoning engaging with the audience, or taking their response into account, I think what they do is usually more exciting to me when they're excited about it. If they're not, I usually find I'm not.

Not saying this way is right or better... just offering an alternate opinion. To try to make music like a McDonalds meal, where you always know what you're going to get, or even that you'll like it... maybe there's some other stuff out there you'll really dig if you're exposed to it, you know? And to everyone who didn't like Zorn and Ribot, that's totally fine, but didn't you have a more interesting evening than seeing something that was too safe and made you feel like a band UNDERestimated your capacity for surprise, your taste, for challenge? Isn't that what people usually complain about in Hollywood movies these days?

nice, ribot is rocking an mmw shirt under his jacket!

I Love Music jazz.. Nice post