OH. MY. GOD. This was, without a doubt, the greatest show I have ever been to. Even better than the Pumpkins.
I went with my girlfriend, and we got their at around 8:15 because the show was supposed to start at 9(ish). We get there and find out the opener isn't even going on until 10:30. (I guess the band before them cancelled). So, we wait around, play some pool, etc. We go check out the stage. I'm mostly looking at gear (the opener only had one pedal for each guitarist and they both had Fender Twins). At this time, hardly anyone is there. Maybe 20-25 people, tops. Well, we are just killing time, looking at the stuff on stage when someone behind us goes "Hey, what are you guys doing!" I turn around, expecting to see some asshole, but it was JIMMY FUCKING CHAMBERLIN! He comes up to us and says "Hi, thanks for coming to the show." Well, both being huge Pumpkins fans (and JCC fans) we are just starstruck. Now, Jimmy is checking out the stage, he comments on the other bands drums (I guess they were good), and then shakes my hand and my girlfriends. Well tell him our names, and he (unneedingly) tells us his. My girlfriend has a cameraphone, but we are both in shock and fail to capitalize on the moment. He then leaves, and we go sit down again for a while.
Later on, we make our move to the stage (there are now only about 50 people, tops, and nobody is even near the stage. I wanted to be front and center). Lizzy notices that Jimmy is sitting next to the merch table, so we go over to there (my girlfriend wanted a shirt anyway). Jimmy is talkign to some guy, but he looks up at me and goes "Hey Zack!" Well, I'm just like OMFG, he remembered my name, and say "Hi" back. My girlfriend had taken one of the cheap 8.5x11 promo posters from the bathroom, and she got him to sign it. (We wanted to stick around after the show to maybe talk to him some more and get a photo, but he was bumrushed directly after, so we decided not to bombard him any further.)
The setlist was (I know exactly, because we got the setlist off the stage, too ):
Streetcrawler
Life Begins Again
PSA (+ extended jam/new song)
Newerwaves
Timeshift
Love is Real
Cranes of Prey (+extended jam & new song)
Loki Kat
Owed to Daryl (+extended jam & new song)
I can't express how fucking awesome this show was. The intensity was about a million times greater than on the album, they added tons of new bits and pieces to each song, the jams were great, and the new songs (I'm assuming) were brilliant. The song I liked especially was the one they played after the extended Cranes of Prey jam. It was truly jazz fusion. If I had any doubts about Sean or Billy's playing ability, they were ended right then and there. Billy went absolutely fucking nuts on bass. It reminded me of Percy Jones from Brand X. He was just playing a regular Fender bass, but it sounded like it was fretless.
During the drum break in Cranes of Prey, Jimmy played like I've never heard him play before. It was like he was on a whole new level of ability. It was one of the best things I have ever seen anyone do. The whole band was great. I've never been able to see such talented people so close (we were directly center stage, about 10 feet away from the drumkit, and I could have reached out and touched Sean or Billy). Just listening to the album doesn't do them justice. They were incredible. There wasn't a bad note, or a misguided improv, or anything. Every note they played was perfect, but not in some kind of clinical, anal way. They played with plenty of dissonance and abstractness at some parts. Billy went totally crazy on one of the jams and started rubbing his bass on the speaker cabinet, detuning the strings, getting lots of feedback.
I'm just in total awe of these guys. I feel really privelaged because of all the reviews, I don't really remember anyone mentioning new songs or anything. On the JCC board, somebody said they played "Sloth", but that's about it. I'm hoping the new songs they played are going to be on their new album. They were just really great. The songs were more complex and diverse than anything on the current album. They were all instrumental too.
As far as equipment, Sean used some new Fender amp. Jimmy had yellow Yamaha drums, and Billy had an Ampeg speaker cab and head. He also had a Fender amp that looked just like Sean's that he used for the sampler. The sampler was hooked to a volume pedal, and he would swell it at various times in certain songs. They started out with a loop for the beginning of the show that blended into Streetcrawler. I forgot to mention that almost every song had a new intro and/or outro. It was really cool.
Billy's part of the stage was pretty dark, so I couldn't see what kind of pedals he had. I know he had 6 pedals though. Sean had a pedal board with 7 pedals, and what looked like maybe a power supply. He also had a EH Memory Man that just sat on the floor. He also used an orange tremolo pedal (dont know what brand), some sort of bigass Line 6 pedal. He also had a moogerfooger pedal (don't know what kind) but he used it for a kind of weird harmonizing effect (like on the main riff for Cranes of Prey). I couldn't make out the rest of the pedals. I think my girlfriend got some good pics, so I will post them when I get them.
I know JCC got a pretty lukewarm reception on this board, but I am now a fan for life. I can't wait for their new album, and I already want to see them live again. FUCK ya.
Damn.
