We finished dinner a little before six and headed over to the Marquee theater, which was really only a few minutes away. Since Bela Fleck & the Flecktones came on at 7 p.m. - a very early start time - we figured we'd just wait at the venue. Might as well sit and be comfortable for a while, right? We ended up having to stand in line, however, and as more and more people gathered behind us, and the clock ticked closer and closer to 7 p.m., it started to dawn on us that this show was probably not going to start on time. As if a wave of revelation swept over a small group of us, we all pulled out our tickets - clearly with the same thought in mind. Re-reading the ticket a little more closely, I found that instead of starting at 7 p.m., it simply said "doors open at 7 p.m." So what time did the band take the stage then? I figured 8 p.m.
Eight o'clock rolled around and still no Flecktones. All the equipment was laid out and set up on stage. Two of Victor Wooten's basses sat idly by his amps, a four-string fretted and a five-string frettless, Bela's electric and acoustic banjos loitered near his rack, and next door Jeff Coffin's two saxes, two flutes, and clarinet stood at attention. Off to the far right rested Futureman's growing percussion set, having added an odd box-shaped kick drum triggered by a remote pedal, along with his usual assortment of electric and acoustic percussion items.
Twenty minutes later a lone figure crossed the stage to check that all the equipment was on and warmed up, leaving a setlist at each musician's station. He stopped at Vic's basses and began tuning, pulling another one out from behind Wooten's equipment, then did the same to Bela's instruments (momentarily revealing the odd "Swiss Army Guitar" Bela plays on some songs.) Instruments tuned, he grabbed Bela's electric banjo and Vic's four-string bass and headed backstage again. The must be ready to go on, right?
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
tom, do you have "Little Worlds"? i've been thinking about getting it because for me the word 'atmospheric' is not bad.
2 - Tom Johnson
I do have it. I like it quite a bit, but it's dense - a lot of similarly tempo'd songs, and a LOT of them. I'm glad it's three discs and not two - it would be overwhelming to hear two 75 minute long discs compared to hearing three 50 minute ones. It just doesn't quite grab me like their earlier efforts have, but is considerably better than Outbound. I have a very soft spot for Left Of Cool, but a lot of fans don't like that one too much for some reason. It's smooth, but not "smooth jazz," if you know what I mean. I think if you like LOC, you'll probably enjoy Little Worlds. It's a grower, however, and each disc has its own personality that needs time to develop. I've been meaning to review this at some point, but it's only now that I feel like I'm getting a good foothold on the music. I'll see if I can get something turned out for it this week. (You'll probably see a lot of these same points brough up in the review, too.)
3 - Eric Olsen
excellent job and great pics - thanks Tom!
4 - Tom Johnson
Thanks, Eric. I wish the shots had come out better - they're very blurry, but at this size they look okay. As nice as my camera is, it's just not fast enough or flexible enough to get non-flash low-light shots. Still, I think the freak-out shot of Jeff Coffin is very cool, and in fact is serving as my desktop at work.