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Even among the hundreds of pounds of cold machinery and pulsing LEDs, Tuesday’s concert was dripping with classic Pat Metheny.
As anticipated, the unusually small number of automated instruments and musical machines were set out on the stage, only to be played during the second half of the set.
Gracing the stage in all black attire and a fresh pair of Puma shoes, the wiry haired Metheny began the nearly 3-hour-long concert with an acoustic set, opening with a classical guitar piece that has not been tracked on any of Metheny’s albums.
Some highlights among the acoustic was a new take of "Unquity Road" from Metheny’s debut album "Bright Size Life" and a quoting of the melody from the self-titled track on 2005’s "The Way Up".
After the acoustic set, Metheny began a playful improvisation with a small percussion instrument he later addressed as Mr. Finger Cymbals.
This quickly developed into "Expansion," a track featured on "Orchestrion."
Just as Metheny was on the verge of beginning the song, the red curtain behind the automated instruments rose, revealing something similar to the new album’s cover: A mass of instruments with flashing LEDs telling them when to play.
The lights were raised, some people covered their ears and jaws dropped.
The song’s opening was an effective way to begin the showcasing of the behemoth of instruments looming behind Metheny.
Every instrument was active in the song, from the glass bottles to the glockenspiel.
Metheny went on to play the whole "Orchestrion" suite in a different track listing from the album, explaining that this order was the way he meant it to be heard.
A master of building up a composition from a quiet, lush melody to a screaming cacophony of highly chromatic harmony, Metheny changed the composition’s key every chance he had.
After playing the new album in its entirety and receiving the first out of three standing ovations, Metheny expressed his gratitude and confessed to not having played West Virginia in at least half a decade.
Metheny graciously went on to explain how some of the instruments worked, first thanking the engineer of the project seated in the audience, and improvising a few pieces in the order in which he taught himself to work the ensemble of instruments, light percussion first, harmonic percussion instruments last.
After demonstrating the instruments and playing a song inspired from a new project, using pedals at the feet to attack strings inside a specially made guitar, Metheny closed his set with another original, unreleased composition, this time with the Orchestrion.
Two ovations, some well-wishing and one encore later, the evening came to a close.
As Metheny drifted offstage, the engineer appeared on stage kindly answering still inquiring minds as to how the instruments work.
The concert, an example of Metheny’s intelligent mind and creative spirit, was supremely humbling, informative and, above all extraordinarily entertaining.
7 comments
Pat played "Unity Village" from Bright Size Life; not "Unquity Road"