This was a late night concert in Vicar Street. Big Satan are a jazz three piece led by saxophonist Tim Berne. I often feel like there should be more jazz in my life, and the programme talked a good game about this lot, so I decided to give them a go, letting other people know that I was doing so. I seem to be a bit of a trendsetter, as a surprising number of people came along to this on my "recommendation", though it turned out that some of them had seen the Satan several years ago.
This stuff is bonkers free jazz, played by Tim Berne on sax, baldy French weirdo Marc Ducret on electric guitar and Tom Rainey on drums. Jazz is maybe the one musical genre where astonishing musical virtuosity is a strength rather than a weakness, so it was great to see three musicians as awesome as these fellows going for it big time.
But it was all a bit uncompromising, and the many trend and event people present seemed a bit non-plussed by it all, leading to a steady stream of leavers as the event wore on. There were also a lot of talkers present. Two chattering twunts were sitting near us, but fortunately they left before it was demonstrated to them that if they liked talking loudly so much then maybe they would be better off doing it in adjacent toilet cubicles with their heads rammed down the bowls. I had more ambivalent feelings towards a couple of very drunk people who kept chattering away through the music, as they were plainly very into the music even if they felt obliged to yammer away through it.
All forward thinking people found this music very enjoyable, and many copies of Big Satan records were purchased. However, the wife of one of my pals suggested that while this music was all very well in the live setting, she did not fancy hearing it at home (or ever again). "Pre-menstrual music" was the phrase used. She may have been correct, but this was easily the highlight of the festival for me, and a concert that I do not really expect to see bettered this year.
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