Pat Metheny, Auckland Town Hall, 9 March 2020: Concert Review

0

The air is electric with anticipation. The Great Hall is almost full but the crowd noise is not much more than a murmur, this is a listening audience tonight. When Pat Metheny strides onto the stage, trade mark shaggy mane of hair, he is carrying the Monster. This is the 42 string Manzer Pikasso, a work of art in itself. A mutant guitar as Picasso cubist painting made into material form. I can see a 6-string and a 12-string, the others mostly invisible in the spotlight. Rev Orange Peel immerses himself in the Path Metheny experience and files this review.

Pat Metheny has a truckful of Grammy awards in over 40 years of producing music. He was born as an artist in the explosion of creativity that was the Beatles in America 1964. His biggest influence is Wes Montgomery. He has played with Ornette Coleman.

Melodic, shimmering music played by half a dozen hands ensues. We are instantly the realm of the senses, in a spirit realm.

I have listened to this music on record and on video. But the sheer sonic impact of this music played live is overwhelming.

I recall feeling the same way the only time I saw Van Morrison live, at Wembley Arena in London.

And this is just the opening.

Now entering the stage Antonio Sanchez on drums, Linda May Han Oh on acoustic bass, Gwilym Simcock on piano and keyboard.  

As the night progresses, we see all three are superb virtuoso musicians in their own right.

As great as the band are, the focus stays on Metheny for the first half. The music sounds as fluid, natural and powerful as the flow of a Himalayan mountain river. There is rapid playing and there is lots of space.

The music seems to comes from outside the planet. It is endless and timeless.

William Burroughs, who has contributed his own particular vision to many of the most ground-breaking and innovative artists of the sixties and later, says that music at this level is a performance of magic or alchemy.  You transport and transform your audience.

Nusrat Ali Fateh Khan, who performed at this level, also said it took power to be a listener of his music too.

We hear Bright-Sized Life, Last Train Home, Better Days Ahead, Letter From Home.  In fact, there are several songs from the album Letter From Home.

At the half way mark, Metheny welcomes everybody. He tells us he has played some of his well-known material, much of it different so it would have been hard to recognise.

He has long played live shows around whatever the latest album he is showcasing, but of recent times he has been presenting this style. Older favourites along with new unheard sounds.

The show continues and the midi guitar synthesiser is brought out for several tunes. It sounds like a cross between a trumpet and a tenor sax, the pure tones of the trumpet played with the rapid speed of the saxophone.

A piece with guitar and drums only is an extended workout of dissonance, Sanchez excelling on rapid-fire drum attacks. Then the music quietens down and becomes ominous and malevolent. The drummer is scraping on his cymbals with a drumstick.  Think of the last act of Apocalypse Now, with Colonel Kurtz stalking around his gloomy temple, waiting for Captain Willard to come and execute him. There is no build-up to finish, this piece ends quietly.

I am reminded that Sanchez provided the great drums-only soundtrack to Birdman, the Best Picture Academy Award winner of 2014.

Both Gwilym and Han Oh get to excell on duos with the guitarist.

At the encore, we first hear Minuano as a lovely, melodic solo piece. Then the band come back for a terrific workout on Have You Heard, which includes the electric bass for the only time tonight.

Losing track of time, it felt like 90 minutes, it’s been 140 minutes.

If this review seems a little bit over the edge, it is all perfectly useless.

~Rev Orange Peel  

Click any photo to view a gallery from Chris Zwaagdyk.

Rev Orange Peel
Latest posts by Rev Orange Peel (see all)