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is this one driving anyone else crazy???? i cant believe that they are at the same time. i can find no rhyme or reason to that bit of scheduling. 2 legends and you only get to see 1.
I agree, I think this is the toughest call of them all to be honest, I dont know why they put them at the same time, they should know the same people who like buddy also like frisell.
My gut tells me buddy, even though ive seen him and not frisell, just because I think buddy will be at his best in a atmosphere like bonnaroo and not where i saw him last time with a bunch a yuppies, who didnt know shit about music.
so im leaning towards buddy....but im not happy about it
We're seeing Bill Frisell at Yoshi's in Oakland saturday night. He's always great there, and we sit at the table next to the stage. (Always sit on the right side. Bill plays three-quarters backwards most of the time, and that's your best shot. If you see him at Bonnaroo, stand over to the right).
He'll be with his Bonnaroo lineup at Yoshi's, and the main reason I'm going this weekend is to easy it up to see Buddy Guy.
Post by oysterheadhead on Jun 4, 2006 1:27:33 GMT -5
i am only mildly interesting in seeing Bill Frisell. i saw Buddy Guy open for Santana back in 1995. it was an almost magical experience. at the time i knew who he was but i had no idea what he would be like. not only was his band the tightest blues band ever, Buddy himself was a commanding presence. his guitar playing was superb BUT it was his vocals that really blew me away. i think that if he wasn't known as a guitar man Buddy Guy could also be considered one of the greatest soul/blues/rock singers ever.
Jazz vs. Blues. I guess it really depends on which brand of music you like better, b/c BOTH of these musicians are EXCELLENT guitar players. I'm catching Frisell, myself. I would love to see Buddy Guy, but I'm really excited about seeing Bill Frisell for the first time, and don't know when I'll get that chance again. And this is not a knock on Buddy, b/c I'm sure he'll play a great show, but straight-forward music like the blues is harder for me to get into at the Roo. I'm from Memphis, and on any given night I can take a drive to Beale Street and hear blues music being played on the street it was born on. So I get a heavy dose of blues here, and at the Roo it's harder for me to get into that type of music. There is so much crazy, next-level music going on at Bonnaroo, I sometimes find myself extremely bored at bluesy-type sets. NMAS Hill Country Review set in '04 is a good example of this. If I had seen that show in Memphis on any given night, I would've been floored. At bonnaroo I had already seen some better/crazier shows, and in the heat, I found myself wanting to check something else out. I sort of feel the same way about Widespread Panic at Bonnaroo. I've seen Panic over 30 times since 96, but at Bonnaroo, I get extremely bored watching them. I guess there is a feeling of been there, done that for me, when I am in an environment where I am exploring new musical avenues. I hope Buddy rocks it out though, and I might just skip the end of Bill's set to see the end of Buddy's.
I'll be at Bill Frisell because I can/do easily see Buddy Guy very frequently. If you live anywhere near Chicago, it is not at all difficult to catch him at his club (I believe he still plays two two-week stands per year).
That said, if you are worried about being bored, its probably much more likely to happen at Frisell than at Buddy Guy. I think Frisell is an amazingly unique American artist and can't wait to see him for the first time, but his output is so incredibly diverse I'm really not sure what to expect. The album I've picked up that features his Bonnaroo lineup (Blues Dream) is pretty chill, as is a lot of his stuff, but I'm assuming his show will be quite diverse and cover a lot of different feels and types of music. He probably has the most pure, exacting sound and tone of any guitar player I've ever heard, and for me the pleasure in his recordings comes from that quality and from unique harmonic and compositional choices moreso than him playing flashy "solos". I'm sure he'll rip off a crazy solo or two, but I'm more interested in seeing him tweak effects and loops and tones to layer out eerily unique tones and sounds.
How about a show review kiwini and flourescentjesus?
Buddy Guy, on the other hand, fits squarely into the "maniacal, mind bending guitar shredding" category. He will absolutely rip, guaranteed. I haven't seen him in a few years, but have seen him many times and have never even almost been dissappointed. Although I'm a huge blues fan, I can understand where you are coming from, gougeaway, about a certain kind of blues not fitting into your Bonnaroo schedule. I've enjoyed every NMAS set I've seen at Bonnaroo (the Hillside Revue the least now that I think about it), but Taj Mahal in '04 kind of fit into to the "not the kind of blues I'm going to check out at Roo" category for me, because it was stripped down and was more focused on the singing than the playing. Buddy Guy is not this kind of blues. He is the "will solo more than your average jam guitarist and sound like fricking Jimi Hendrix doing it" kind of blues. In Chicago I can probably see a half dozen guys playing the same basic kind of style in a given week. I've spent some time in Memphis and don't think the style is quite as dominated by the "Buddy Guy" sound as it is in Chicago, but I'm sure you can see plenty of it on Beale Street too. Ulimately Buddy Guy at Bonnaroo is a slam dunk, money in the bank home run. You will not be dissappointed, Buddy will deliver (unless he has aged way more than I understand he has since I saw him last; every one says he is as spry as ever).
I'll be seeing what Frisell is up to and maybe catching Buddy depending on my mood and the scene before heading over to CYHSY.
When it comes down to it, buddy guy will put on an amazing show. Not only is he a great guiter player/singer but he has a stage presence like I have never seen before.
I think he will feed off of the enthuisasm of the bonnaroo crowd, because the last time i saw him it was mostly middle aged yuppies who didnt seem that into the music and he still rocked the house!!!!
Bill Frisell is more of a relaxed show, I have lots of his albums and they are all pretty chilled out and slow (in terms of tempo) which is why i would rather see buddy guy at a festival. But bill frisell is an amazing guiter player and hopefully he will sit in on somebody elses set so I can check him out.
Bill @ Yoshi's sounded a lot like his East/West CD (same style, same drummer - Kenny Wolleson) but with David Piltch on electric bass (vs. Victor Krauss on stand-up bass) and with the addition of Greg Leisz on lap and pedal steel guitar. That was a great complement to Bill's style, in that his telecaster play and the backwards loops hint at slide without actually being slide. (We saw the "West" show of the East/West album when it was being recorded at Yoshi's a couple years ago.)
Bill opened with "Shendandoah", similar to the East/West cut but went into two or three other songs without a pause after that. If you've heard "Heard it through the Grapevine" from East/West, we were sure that the next song was going to get around to it because we heard echoes of a setup for about ten minutes before Bill capo'ed up and jammed like Jerry for another ten instead. There was another familiar song that I still can't remember the name of, twisted turned and looped through the Frisellotron. "I Shall Be Released" ended the main set, and "So Lonesome I Could Cry" was the encore. It started out as a slow twangy waltz and then got jammin bluesy with power at the close.
So the set was about 2/3 familiar songs that veered well into the spectacular originality Bill is known for, and 1/3 original Bill stuff. Some of the time he just fiddled with his looper box making noises and playing with Kenny. The looper came into play for pretty much every song.
Speaking of Kenny, I hope he looked up every now and then and watched Bill perform, because for most of the set, Bill was facing Kenny instead of us. Sit to the left and you'll get a better view of what Bill is doing.
That said, now that I've seen Bill for the year (and in a 315-seat club), I'll be seeing Buddy Guy for the first time, and sonny will want to catch a bit of CYHSY, too, I'm sure.
Thanks for the review kiwini. I'm having second thoughts about seeing Frissell though. I haven't seen him before, but I think Buddy -- who I have seen once -- will put on a better show given the nature of the festival. How well could Frissell's stlye translate to an outdoor festival? That is my primary concern. I guess I'll just make a decision and hope whomever I pick tears it up.
