Joe Lally – Casa del Popolo – 13.11.11
A sparse audience crowds a dimly lit room as Helen Money (Alison Chesney) takes to the stage. She positions her cello against her body, and wraps her fingers around its arm with her head down low. Bangs cover the majority of her face as she keeps her posture drooped with the determination and concentration of a Schroeder-like composer. Instrumental music takes on a voyeuristic leap as she plays through a timid setting, only to swell up with the fervor and anger of a real kind of triumph. The crowd is quiet and patient as Money walks them through their emotional issues. Money masters the cello with an admirable skill, as she wails at the thing – reverberating angry pulse after angry pulse. Somehow, Money manipulates her cello from a classical instrument into a wailing electric guitar (yes, this is a thing). She is humble and quiet with her remarks, and ends with a cover (unknown to me), but that’s okay, cause the dude in front of me just said “man, that ruled.”
Up next is Alden Penner and his lively folk act, his backing features a tambourines, violin, and even some pseudo tribal drums. The atmosphere on stage was lively and generous as the band crooned out one cute southern verse after the next. Penner lulls, “my calamity is my providence” as he “hates the moral spirit” in the track “My Calamity.” Earlier, Penner has been spotted in the back of the audience truly rocking out to Helen Money’s vibes – demonstrating the same sense of camaraderie visible on stage with his backing band (referred to as the Hidden Words). And like Money herself, Penner will end off with a gracious acknowledgement of it being a total “honour to be playing with Joe Lally.”
And finally, there goes Joe Lally (oh you know, former bassist of Fugazi) and his mysteriously zen attitude – and accompanying him on stage was Helen Money herself. Lally very warmly expresses gratitude to the crowd as he heartens, “This is for all of you, as it is about being together for music.” As an opening taste, Lally starts the night with “Fort Campbell KY”, setting the vibe for what was to come. With his effortlessly cool and complex riffs, Lally rides through each track transitioning from a pace of steady drums, and collapsing into more up-beat tracks like, “Why Should I Get Used To It.” Lally transitioned through his set exploring the funky edge to his low-end bass theory with stand out tracks such as “Skin and Bones” (which Lally dedicated to a beloved Brazil), and channeled his inner teenage angst as he cried out “something’s wrong, I know I don’t belong” in the ballad “Painfully Aware.” Some noteworthy performances of the night included “Faculty Warranty,” and “Coral & Starfish” – two tracks off his latest release, There to Here. In the midst of the set Lally subtly nodded to his past as he asks, “Does anyone have any questions, sometimes a lot of bass players have a lot of questions – like bass therapy.” One dude in the back shouts out, “Top end or Low end?” – and Lally (in a very pleasant tone, might I add) calmly responds, “Obviously low end, what kind of question was that?” – Sruti I.
