As many of you know, I have been waiting and waiting for Me’Shell to come to Minneapolis for years and years… and it hasn’t happened. I did see her sit in for ten minutes with the Brother Jacques Project at S.O.B.’s in New York, but that was more of just a tortuous teaser than anything! So, when I found out my roommate was going to Milwaukee the same weekend that meshell was playing in Chicago, I jumped at my chance to finally see her play.

I left Milwaukee at about noon, arriving at the Dusable Museum at a little after 2:00. I told the security guard that I needed to get something from Kael Mboya (singer/keys for Ascendant who were opening for meshell), and he radioed another guard who let me into the auditorium with no questions! I sat down near the front and waited…I heard meshell’s voice about half hour later, and the musicians from her band started coming on stage. She was very careful to ask the staff’s names and seemed really relaxed and occasionally almost bubbly. She had on a blue adidas jacket with yellow stripes, navy blue adidas pants with yellow stripes, an orange and navy blue striped stocking hat and bright blue shoes with orange stripes.

It was really fascinating to watch the band members get comfortable with their surroundings and to make sure all of their equipment was set up right... Raymond Angry spent a great deal of time firing off various super busy sampled loops of music on his keyboard. They checked the monitors for each musician, so I got to see various combinations of the musicians improvise little things together. I could tell right away how much they all loved playing...cuz they couldn’t help but break into little jams during this process. Eventually they did a full band sound check that included Love Song #1 and then a more full rehearsal of GOD.FEAR.MONEY (concentrating on a breakdown near the end of the song, and working out a cue for it). Meshell is really intense to watch.... She seems to be very very affected by absolutely everything, and it is super easy to see what she’s thinking in her eyes and facial expressions, body language in general.

The other two bands sound checked and then a lady came around and informed those of us that weren’t in the band and didn’t have tickets that we had to leave. I was sad to hear this since I didn’t, as of yet, have tickets for the 7:30 show. I left my backpack in the front row..hoping that no one would steal it, and went out to buy a ticket. I succeeded, though the ticket lady was extremely rude to me (informing me I had to take off my wristband for the 10:15 show cuz I had not bought tickets for it, which I promptly attempted to inform her that i had)... she eventually realized her mistake when I showed her my ticket, apologized profusely and gave me like five drink tickets. I don’t drink..but I drank a shitload of this amazing southern spiced iced tea. This ended up being the only thing I had time to eat ALL DAY! This probably added to the extreme emotions I felt all day.

I went back into the auditorium and was thrilled to find that my front row seat was still open and my backpack was still there. I watched the first two bands (a really flamboyant, dramatic political poet, and ascendant, who played very positive funk with bass, keys, drums and two vocalists). I thought I was going to burst due to the anticipation….but finally, after much goofy ass drawings for prizes and whatnot (the whole neo soul explosion thing felt like a church fundraiser or something) the mc announced that meshell would play for forty minutes.. I think everyone was kinda like, “uh. 40 minutes? What have we been sitting around doing drawings for grills and shit for !??” but everyone cheered and the band filed on stage.

Meshell had changed into black pin striped pants, a rust and cream colored jacket, a green and white stocking hat, and black converse allstars with rainbows on the sides and red laces :cool:.

The musicians:
Bass vocals - Meshell
Backup Vocals – Sabina (?)
Keyboard/Organ - Raymond Angry
Guitar vocals - K'alyn
Guitar - Oren Bloedow
Bass - John John West
Drums - Chris Dave

Here is an approximate setlist (I think I may be remembering the order of some of the new songs incorrectly).

Pimpster’s Paradise
Started out with a new reggae song. This song had a really carefree, chill and significantly less probing, dark mood to it than the other reggae songs of hers that I have heard. I was smiling so big I thought my face was going fall off.

Love Song #1
Moody beginning that morphed into a very sade inspired reggae feel (sade meaning: “this is love-eh, this is how I love you-eh”…the lilt at the ends of words and the harmonies and straight forward dark timbre to the singing). This had some very busy cymbal and kick drum stuff goin on. At this point Meshell had been exclusively singing. It’s so interesting to see what direction she takes things. This song, as well as most of the other new ones, had very simple, direct, descriptive lyrics. “let me kiss your bodeh…fill you with love..let me feed your body.. fill you with love” Lots of looped samples from Angry.

Come Smoke
This one started out instrumentally with meshell on bass. She did some super nice bass fills: you know, when she does these fills that you don’t think there’s ANY possible way that they are gonna fit…. But then they do. And it feels so GOOD. Also… I don’t smoke weed. I am surrounded by people smoking weed every day. And I have never felt a real desire to smoke. But this song made me wanna smoke some herb. “come smoke my herb/make your heart like the ocean/ and mind like the clear blue sky” I am really enjoying the simplicity of these lyrics. This song has the kind of bass line I would expect meshell to improvise… placed really nicely in the bar with nice popping short notes within the line. Angry’s playing reminded me a bit of Federico on this one. Had a really really intense loud rock ending with feel good bass playing by meshell.

GOD.FEAR.MONEY
Super funky. All the transitions hit really hard.. Nice loud kick drum on this one. When they broke into the ending..where the tempo abruptly gets slower, it was so powerful I burst into tears. :inlove:

Fool of Me
I had no idea what song this was for a good 3 minutes.. Started out with solo organ in funky, gospelly 12/8 (or some similar time sig). Then Meshell, the backup singers, and the band came in with “fool of me.” This was so amazing and bittersweet. It nearly broke my heart.. the juxtoposition of the powerful, simple, stark ‘fool of me’ from bitter..and this new arrangement. It was sort of like she was remembering the experience described by ‘fool of me’ with a little more distance between now and when it happened, and thus a little less pain.

Quentin Mack
The funky and political song we know and love. Funky bass playing.. slightly funkier, slightly more minimalistic drums.

Free My Heart
Started out with K’alyn, Sabina and Meshell on vocals and K’alyn on guitar. I think this was the only song where meshell did her sing-speak-rap thing. It comes across a little differently live than on her albums.. more like she’s doing a combination of talking to herself and us.. vs on the albums where sometimes it feels more like a combination of narrating and talking to herself. It all felt very sincere. If one thing strikes me more than anything about her, it is her obvious sincerity and honesty in the way she presents herself.

River
How does she write these melodies that are so natural and beautiful that it seems as though they must exist in the universe somewhere.. and then she just catches them? They don’t leave you ever. They were in me after just hearing them once.

Fellowship/Forgiveness and Love

I think body was in there somewhere too. Or maybe I just heard her play it at soundcheck?

What’s interesting, is that usually I would/could provide a lot more detailed analysis of what went on musically after seeing a show. However, the whole experience was so emotional and overwhelming.. her music and presence is so mesmerizing, transfixing… though I did pay attention to technicalities, I was so completely drawn into her world, and her stories, and ideas… that I’d rather discuss those aspects than every last detail of every last transition and groove in each song. I think that means it was an amazing show.. for the most part the band and meshell (particularly meshell) transcended their instruments and just made music. There were certain things about various people’s playing where this wasn’t necessarily true.. sort of reminds me why I am sad that I will never see the brethren interact live.

Now a little bit about the musicans:

Meshell~
well. She’s fucking amazing. I now know why people fly all over the country to see her play. I had so many expectations… and she just went beyond all that. It wasn’t even about, “she can play bass unlike anyone else because of the way she places shit in the bar… blah blah blah.” It was just… she has this incredible, humble, beautiful, artistic spirit. And she really can play the bass unlike anyone else. It was blatantly obvious when she’d stop playing bass and it would be just john-john. TOTALLY different feels and sounds. In fact, a few times I believe she just picked up her bass to correct the way john-john was playing her lines….

She did not speak to the audience much at all… I felt as though I was peering in on her own world in her head. I felt rather privileged to be listening in on her most intimate thoughts. It was great to see her turning around and smiling at her bandmates.

Backup Vocals – Sabina~
though her voice is a bit more twangy and abrasive than meshell and k’alyn’s (how could anyone’s NOT be?) she blended well when appropriate and stood out when she did a couple more extensive vocal improvisations by herself. Overall, I think she worked really well with(in) the sound… I’ve always complained about meshell’s backup singers sounding really oddly out of tune on bootlegs, and did not notice this at all with Sabina or k’alyn.

Keyboard/Organ - Raymond Angry~
I saw Angry play one other time in NYC at the above mentioned Brother Jacques Project show where meshell sat in. I was a pretty critical of his playing at that show (I enjoyed it…but had a lot to say about things I wasn’t that into). I thought his playing with meshell’s band was about 17 times more interesting and just better. He did suffer from the thing that is my chief complaint about most of the musicians that are currently playing with meshell… I think at times he just played too many goddamn notes. He did, however, make use of these really interesting, notey, sampled loops. I wonder if he made them or if meshell did. I really did dig his playing, though..everything he did felt really natural and sincere. the organ appeared to be an extention of his body.

Guitar vocals - K'alyn~
K’Alyn has this voice… that reminds me of honey. In fact, it’s totally angelic. He and meshell sound so beautiful together. He did a vocal improvisation with delay effects. He looks so joyful when he plays and sings. It seems as though he could be classified as playing “rhythm guitar” more-so than oren. (like he often was playing the off-beats in the reggae tunes.)

Guitar - Oren Bloedow~
It was really interesting to see how oren fit in. I thought his playing was the most different from anyone else in the band: meaning his was the most jazz influenced, and had the most unique rhythmic sound. In fact, I think his concept of rhythm almost borders on awkward, but ends up sounding really interesting. He played some really thoughtful solos. Nice to hear. Other than meshell, he was the most careful/selective about how many notes he was playing.

Bass - John John West~
John-John looked thrilled to be up there. I don’t know how I feel about his playing in combination with meshell’s playing and composing. He was really loose sounding compared to meshell, and had a way less focused sound. Whenever she stopped playing and he remained I felt a sort of gaping hole. But, he was so enthusiastic… and his playing was generally tight.

Drums - Chris Dave~
Mr. Dave definitely has maintained that “complicated r&b drumming” mentality. He was wayyyyyyyyyy into adding these complex 3 against 2 hemiolas to every single song. While this sounded sort of impressive, it got pretty irritating after a while. I particularly enjoyed his playing on Quentin mack. He was also really solid on GOD.FEAR.MONEY. he did seem to use some dynamics… though most of them were loud ones! He did do some really interesting fills that shared that quality of “is he gonna make it!??????” with someof meshell’s fills. I like when drummers fuck around with the time. I also loved the way that chris and Raymond interacted.

I probably sound pretty negative in the above descriptions… I don’t mean to at all… it’s just that meshell’s playing was so absolutely amazing and flawless to me that any things about the other musicians that I felt were discrepancies were incredibly conspicuous as a result. Of course, I totally acknowledge the fact that all of these things are my personal opinion. I also acknowledge the fact that these musicians have only been playing together for a few months with very very little rehearsal… so, especially, with taking that into consideration they really were incredibly tight. I would guess that they are definitely leaning toward realizing meshell’s vision.

In between the two shows the band was chillin outside of the museum, so I did get to meet meshell briefly. I told her how much of a musical and moral inspiration she is to me, as well as how much i appreciate her capacity for change, evolution and revolution J. She seemed really really humble, almost uncomfortable to be receiving these compliments and even sort of shy. She gave off a very caring, gentle almost delicate vibe.. she also seemed to be staying inside herself a bit. Unfortunately, at that point I got all star struck and wanted some physical evidence to remind myself of meeting her and asked for her signature. I had nothing with me except my purse, and my flute (which I was intending to play at the open mic). So I suggested she sign my flute case…. She looked incredibly uncomfortable and told me she felt weird about that. I told I understood (which I do) and felt like a total ass. Oh well. WHY AM I A FUCKING NERD?????????

I spoke with Raymond (who remembered me from the s.o.b.’s show) and k’alyn, who is a particularly graceful, humble and beautiful human being.

The second show was a lot better than the first… though it seemed like it really flew by. The band seemed more comfortable, seemed to interact more and with more ease… and there was some additional improvisation that happened. I believe they played for a good hour and 15 minutes or 30 minutes at the first show… it’s possible they did the same for the second. I was really happy that they went overtime for the first show. Really really happy. In fact they went over enough so that the second show had to start late! Meshell took off the jacket and was rocking a NO WAR t-shirt with an undershirt underneath. I believe she also had a a stocking cap with Rasta colors.

After the show I bought a thong that said “can’t nobody eat my pussy the way you do” this continues to make me giggle.

I found directions to the after party which was at the dragon room on the north side of Chicago. It took me forever to find it. The flyer described it as being the official after party and an event for open minded people. Sweet huh? So I eventually got there,
and parked. i get to the door and there's two large black men and two large black women acting as door people. i ask "is it bad to park there?" and i point to my car. dude's like: "do you like black men? cuz if u do i'll protect you"
and then the woman is like "you like black women? cuz i'll protect you too"

and i was like ....
uh
" i was just hoping i wouldnt get towed"
lol
and they are like "you have a cute booty" and i am like "thanks.... ok imma go in now." then they are like "do you know what "for open minded folks" means?" i think about it for a second and think to myself. "well..yeah. but not in this context...lol." but i say "yeah. for sure"
so i go in.....
and it all becomes incredibly clear. i'm like OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. i seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. it's this crazy club that must have been something else before it was a club... like a warehouse... but it has multiple floors, bars, lofts, etc. and i believe there was one other white person there. and it was about 80% women. 77% of whom must have been bi or gay. and various folks doing their things being announced by a dj: a naked black girl dancing, a michael jackson imitator, a half naked girl.... etc. lots of women dancing together on the dance floor. and a roped off room where everyone from the band was except meshell and sabina (i think). they came out and chilled in the other parts as well. i talked with k'alyn and raymond a bit. they invited me to this other party...so her sound engineer, bernardo, came with me and we followed raymond, k'alyn, john john.....but eventually gave up.

After dropping off bernardo I found the highway and started heading back toward Milwaukee. Now keep in mind, I still hadn’t had a chance to eat or sleep in a whole day (it was almost 7 in the morning at this point). So as I noticed myself frequently starting to veer off the highway (or expressway as these Chicago folks call it) I decided to pull over and sleep. At this point I noticed the air conditioner had stopped working.

So I slept for about a half hour and started out again. Not twenty minutes later the car started smelling funny, the change battery light went on, the power steering went out, AND the hood started smoking!!!!! So I pulled over to the side of the highway, swearing profusely. I was terrified. The last time I went out of town the vehicle I was in broke down in a similar manner and then after that I was in a near fatal car addicent in the bar we called!!! So I was NOT happy about this situation. Not to mention the fact that I was driving my roommate’s car. ARGH. So I call her, and she comes to get me… and we realize that I somehow lost the keys!!!!! Her ONLY set of keys! Isn’t this fucking awesome? So… I still don’t know what all is going to happen with that. God bless triple AAA i guess.

All in all, seeing meshell met all of my expectations, transcended them, and left me full but incredibly hungry for more. My experience was:
a) Extraordinarily inspiring.
b) A real wake up call. I need to get off my ass and work harder at making sure I am playing music that truly moves me. I mostly play hip hop right now, and while I love it, the music doesn’t move me the way that a music with more development can.
c) I want and need to play with people who want to project a similar narrative of what’s important on this planet to what I believe is important. Sometimes I get frustrated that I am not a singer or rapper. I think music can go incredibly far… but words are really effective tools…
d) Life changing.


All my love goes out to meshell and her band. Thank you so much for your artistry.

link:myspace.com/blackblondiemusic/|BLACK BLONDIE]