Tortoise’s eclectic brand of music may prove the four
members have a cooler record collection than most indie nerds, but
that’s not all they can flaunt.
They’re also outstanding musicians, capable of putting on
a stellar live show to boot. The Chicago-based, avant-garde quintet
played a set Friday at the Henry Fonda Theater that careened
through the endless avenues of past sonic adventurism, proving the
group’s still one of the most cerebral rock acts around,
originality be damned.
The opening act Mountain Goats, a one-man project of
singer/guitarist John Darnielle, is perhaps one of independent
music’s best-kept secrets. Darnielle flew solo for his rare
L.A. show (“Hi, we’re Mountain Goats” he quipped
as he sat down alone on stage), singing songs of misshapen
personalities, broken relationships and drug issues with the
occasional comic edge. Propelled by a tremulous voice and stately
guitar, Darnielle’s best songs came from the quietly intense
album “Tallahassee,” released last year.
The two acts were strange bedfellows. A short while after
Darnielle left the stage to enthusiastic ovations, Tortoise kicked
off its set with the anthem-like strains of
“Seneca.”
At this point in its career Tortoise could be seen as at a
crossroads, tempering the evocative and impressionistic sounds
gleaned from minimalism, ambient and dub with the more modern sense
of disorientation found in IDM. But what left its last record,
2001’s “Standards,” cold and dry was only
minimally alleviated at the show. Tortoise’s best musicians,
bassist Doug McCombs and guitarist Jeff Parker, were at times
overshadowed by the cold and characterless xylophone, turned up way
too high.
But the high points sent the crowd into a trance. Building off
John McEntire’s free jazz-inspired drumming and
McComb’s bass playing, Tortoise proved it’s still at
its best when it gets into a groove and remembers it’s still
a rock band, not just a purveyor of forgotten musical genres.