On Saturday I went up to Minneapolis to see Marc Ribot perform at the Cedar Cultural Center. It was an awesome evening. I met up with four friends at the Cedar, and before the show we stepped next door to eat dinner at Chai's Thai Restaurant. It was delicious. I had some kind of red curry with chicken and potatoes. The food was great, but what made it amazing was the company we shared together. Lots of laughs and fun.
We then stepped back over to the Cedar just in time for the show. After some words from the director of the Cedar about new air conditioning and heating systems being installed, Marc Ribot made his way on stage. He was wearing a long leather jacket and carrying his trusty flat-top acoustic guitar. My friend and I disagreed about the make of the guitar. I thought Gibson; he thought Stella. I still think it was a Gibson, but if anyone knows, chime in. It's the same guitar that's featured in the second video from my previous post. (Note: the picture above seems to confirm the Gibson theory.)
Anyway, now we get to the important part: his music was wonderful. He played maybe five or six songs for a total of about 30 minutes. For the first couple minutes I was anxious about whether he'd succeed musically in his endeavor. What I mean is that in his music he puts himself way out there without a safety net. Each song begins with a structure or theme of some sort, but from there he goes whichever directions inspiration leads him. For those first couple minutes I was nervous he'd get himself into dead areas musically that would cause me to be embarrassed for him. However, after a couple minutes, I knew I could trust him to make compelling music no matter which directions he was going.
Here's a live performance of his in Dallas from September of 2010, but I believe he played these songs at the Cedar as well.
During his set, I was impressed with his virtuosity. He knows the guitar and music so well, but he always first and foremost plays the way he wants to. Or so I imagine. I don't really know anything about how he approaches music, never read any interviews with him. As someone who likes a bunch of avant-garde guitarists, I sometimes wonder how much technique (traditional or idiosyncratic) certain guitarists actually have. What's important is not how close their technique comes to traditional standards but how rigorous, disciplined, and developed their own techniques are. That's something Joe Morris has helped me to understand. I really admire Ribot for his technique and ability to make very powerful music on guitar.
I would have liked him to play for another hour, but that wasn't the deal. After an intermission, he returned to the stage to accompany a screening of Charlie Chaplin's The Kid. That was a great experience. My favorite scene can be found in the following clip starting at 0:37 seconds. It's the moving scene when the mother and her estranged child encounter each other, not knowing that they are mother and child. It's interesting watching this video with Chaplin's original music. I can't remember what exactly Ribot was doing during this scene, but it seemed to bring out the emotional power way more than the Chaplin soundtrack. I was in tears during this brief scene.
The movie ended, rather abruptly I might add, and Ribot left. The concert was over. A couple friends and I went down to the Chatterbox Pub to play Farkle, drink Shamrock pop, and eat sweet potato fries. Great evening out in Minneapolis. Ribot is fast becoming one of my favorite guitarists.
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