'The Old Knit' 20th Anniversary Concert – Town Hall, NYC

Story by Zac Bardou
Photos by TJHospodar

At Town Hall on March 1, producer Michael Dorf brought together a motley host of musicians to celebrate the anniversary of The Knitting Factory, a pillar of longevity in the New York music scene that he co-founded twenty years ago. In store for those in attendance were two provocatively eclectic and variously exploratory sets that would provide an exhaustive review of the myriad avant-garde musical ventures that found a home at the “Old Knit” during the 90s.

A jazz sextet led by Roy Nathanson opened the show. Joe Lovano on tenor saxophone, Don Byron on clarinet and Nathanson on alto saxophone took turns soloing over the raucous rhythms of Brad Jones on bass and Ben Perowsky on drums. The horns and woodwind then joined forces, building to a cacophonous frenzy of honks, howls and extraterrestrial screeches before giving way to a Bill Ware vibraphone solo and an energetic ensemble finish that set the tone for the evening.

Rebecca Moore and The Prevention of Blindness performed a melancholy and haunting piece that showcased the resonance of a viola, a violin and a cello. Sampled electronic whirs and beeps supplied a menacingly mechanical undertone to Moore’s angst-ridden vocals.

Technical difficulties demanded that DJ Spooky forego the video portion of his performance, so he and Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo dove right into the music. DJ Spooky laid the foundation with a deliberate dub-jazz drumbeat while Ranaldo brandished his guitar like a broadsword, his amplifiers cranked to the limits, waving and shaking the axe about in a feedback inducing frenzy.

He tapped the end of the guitar against the floor as though it were a metal detector on the beach and slapped the steels with drumsticks, summoning distorted reverberations and gritty atonal groans. The cumulative result was a boldly experimental and bellowing piece that bordered on performance art.

Guitarist Marc Ribot’s tumultuous blues groove was the centerpiece of a delightfully schizophrenic improvisation that also comprised heavy metal driven by the drone of Brad Jones’ bass and big band swing buoyed by Ben Perowski while squawked, squealed and peeled by Marcus Rojas on tuba and Steven Bernstein on slide trumpet.

John Zorn’s first piece was an almost gastrointestinal duet with Ikue Mori “playing” laptop. Zorn’s spastic sax produced a frantic range of chirps, chortles and rumbles that at times sounded more like the intonations of flutes or didgeridoos than those of a big brass bazooka. Marc Ribot then returned to the stage with bass man Trevor Dunn and drummer Calvin Westin and Zorn led all five in a rousingly rocking jam that would provide a high energy counterpoint to the upcoming first set finale.

Lou Reed, leather-clad and accompanied by Mike Rathke on guitar and Jane Scarpentoni on cello, closed the set with two brooding, grinding alt-rock ballads brimming with the sort of cryptic, croaking vocals and unhinged guitar work that Reed became famous for with the Velvet Underground. “Ecstasy,” lamented the cooling of passion and the strangling of romance that follow the taking of the vows of marriage.

Then Zorn returned to the stage and joined Reed for “Rock Minuet,” weaving his brass beat-box sax style with the lilt of the cello and lending a fourth dimension to the sprawling urban epic. A first half that had combed the heights and plumbed the depths of panoply of musical styles ended on its darkest note yet.

Laurie Anderson started the three-act second set with perhaps the most topically political and amusing performance of the night. As her fingers hammered the synthesizer keys in a manner and sound-effect befitting a scene from Napoleon Dynamite, her spoken lyrics bemoaned the American people’s reliance on, and often blind trust of, “experts.” The painstakingly repetitive piece touched on issues such as the last presidential election, the Iraq war, global warming and even the Academy Awards.

Mike Doughty of Soul Coughing, accompanied by Andrew Livingston on electric guitar, followed Anderson with two folk rock tunes that represented the most melodic moments of the evening. After reminiscing about his days as the doorman at the Knitting factory, Doughty performed his single “Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well” off of his 2005 solo album Haughty Melodic, as well as “Janine” off of Soul Coughing’s 1994 debut album Ruby Vroom before making way for Medeski, Martin & Bledoe to close things out.

In bassist Chris Wood’s absence, Oren Bledoe joined keyboardist John Medeski and drummer Billy Martin for a three-song finale that featured a cosmically rhythmic number reminiscent of Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd. John Medeski beat his keys like a drum kit and the three-man rhythm section pummeled the audience with a barrage of percussion that was followed by a lyrical ballad led by Bledoe.

Finally, guitarist Gary Lucas and, eventually, the majority of the night’s contributors emerged to join MMB in an ensemble rendition of “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Band,” coming finally apart and unraveled in a glorious litany of chaotic musical mayhem that could not have provided a more appropriate conclusion to a program that spanned the farthest and most polar reaches of experimental composition.

The concert benefited The Stone, a non-profit Lower East Side performance space founded by John Zorn to support the avant-garde musical community.