Del Posted June 8, 2004 Report Share Posted June 8, 2004 Saw this on www.spin45.net, interesting read for sure. Nero Show Date Sat June 05, 2004 Venue Rivoli Location Toronto, Ontario Reviewer Aaron Goldstein Review Date Sun June 06, 2004 Jamband. What a silly word, eh? The bands who are affiliated, voluntarily or otherwise, with the Jam genre number many, and certainly there are more every day. Nero is one of these many. Fitting is the description and yet incomplete. Allow me to illustrate. The Ottawa-based jammers blew through Toronto last night to play for a nice sized crowd at the Rivoli. Nero are on a CD Release tour in support of their latest effort Zedonk, and were in fine form last night. The context of their three-piece arrangement allows each to showcase his individual talent, and yet, stereotypically, the music is so much more than the sum of its parts. Bassist Chris Buote and drummer Jay McConnery, collectively as a rhythm section, would have their work cut out for them if they were to sit back all night and provide simple back-up to guitarist Dave Lauzon’s virtuosic wankery. Make no mistake, that in and of itself might make for a pretty entertaining evening. Instead, though, each musician shines in his own right, and the elements come together in an awe-inspiring rock-funk-dance-jam-tech-psych soup of flashing lights and brain-caressing sounds. And then, of course, there is the ‘jam’ element. Nero takes this to mean that most songs begin with a certain riff or phrase, only to be interrupted by something different (in most of Nero’s cases, something COMPLETELY different), and those two or more phrases - interjected with one or two or more odd number time signature interludes - are ‘jammed’ until the time has come to stop. Sounds simple enough, but given that Nero is making challenging music to begin with, the mixing of so many styles and genres and sounds within one song is magnificent. This is a band that appears to be keeping things fresh, and is not short on new ideas. Watching Nero I got the feeling that this band, as amazing as they are, has yet to reach its peak. Zedonk is almost certainly a Meddle; imagine what’s to come when they reach their Dark Side, their Wall. Nero will continue on their CD Release tour through July 1st. Check www.neroland.com for more tourdates. "Dave Lauzon’s virtuosic wankery..." Classic... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stapes Posted June 8, 2004 Report Share Posted June 8, 2004 stereotypically, the music is so much more than the sum of its parts. WTF is that supposed to mean? :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Del Posted June 8, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2004 "Fitting is the description and yet incomplete." Dude thinks he's Yoda... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaimoe Posted June 8, 2004 Report Share Posted June 8, 2004 Watching Nero I got the feeling that this band, as amazing as they are, has yet to reach its peak. I agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shainhouse Posted June 8, 2004 Report Share Posted June 8, 2004 I know Aaron. He's a great guy, but his use of descriptive imagery needs a little tweaking. good, positive piece though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Im going home Donny Posted June 8, 2004 Report Share Posted June 8, 2004 hmm... i thought this was pretty good....i sorta think he was saying that they are more than just a 'jam band' that there is more complicity to them to just throw them into that catagory? Myself I am fed up with the 'Jam band' word.....i think it turns more folks off than on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meggo Posted June 9, 2004 Report Share Posted June 9, 2004 stereotypically, the music is so much more than the sum of its parts. WTF is that supposed to mean? :: yeah i don't think he meant that as a bad thing... i think he just meant that, as is 'stereotypical' of jambands, they're more than just a good lead guitar, good bass player and good drummer. and i definitely agree. :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGoodRev Posted June 13, 2004 Report Share Posted June 13, 2004 Hello all. Nice to see my article has found its way over here. Meggo's got it, what I meant was that the music is so much more than the sum of its parts. I added the word 'stereotypically' because, well, that's true of a lot of bands in this scene. As for the Yoda comment, what can I say. That's the way I write. Would you rather read a bunch of reviews that say "The band fuckin rocked man!". Anyway I figure this is a good opportunity to give a good plug for the site. Initially we started spin45.net as a window into the jam and roots community for people who were outside of those communities, people who sort of didn't know what they were missing. We offer live downloads of one or two shows at a time; they are currently in OGG (don't shoot) but are in the process of moving to a new server so that we can offer lossless downloads. Additionally, it's a place to shoot my mouth off, because I dig a lot of music (most of it fitting into the jam genre, some not so) and I like to write about it. We don't make any money from the site (no ads either). So go take a look: http://www.spin45.net Cheers everybody Aaron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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