TSPOLL: When did you first catch MMW live?
Posted on January 18, 2015, in Jazz, Live Music, Music and tagged Billy Martin, Chris Wood, Improvisation, Jazz, John Medeski, Live Music, Medeski Martin & Wood, MMW, The Shack Project. Bookmark the permalink. 11 Comments.
The Shack Project 
FIrst live MMW gig = April 23/1998 State Theatre, Portland, ME … Chris opened with a bass solo, didn’t know who he was (had never seen a picture of the band) and I wasn’t sure he should be smacking that bass the way he was, but man, it hooked me in and out came Medeski and Martin, and off we went! I’d been a big fan of what I’d been hearing from the band, which as the Shack-man album and some ’95-’96 cassettes (nothing from ’97), so seeing them focus on the Combustication material with a DJ (Logic) was like a whole different band, and those guys just keep doing that … always the MMW vibe but they are very fluid in their sound …
March 18, 1994 – Variety Playhouse, Atlanta GA. MMW and Leftover Salmon opening for Aquarium Rescue Unit. Both MMW and Salmon ended up playing pretty much the ARU set as well. Whenever Medeski would try to leave the stage Bruce would look at him and say “Sit down, you’re workin’ overtime tonight”. A night of music I will never forget.
We do have a partial recording fo that night, but nothing with any guests. This is a gig we shared years ago when we first started the project (’05?), so I’ll get an ID tagged torrent and stream set up in the near future for this one!
July 25, 1997 – HORDE Festival @ Deer Creek. This was the beginning of an era for me. I had made it a point to see this set due to the word of mouth from the ’95 Austin and New Orleans Phish shows. They did not disappoint, but I did not catch a full indoor show until the following year.
Well, I’ll toss up a torrent and stream of this gig in the coming week! We shared this years ago on bt.etree, but now I’m sharing ID tagged filesets and setting up streams so time to post some ’97 again!
4/17/1997 at the Fillmore. I was passing through San Francisco and MMW just happened to be playing. Very lucky. It was another 14 years before I got to seem them at the Independent in San Francisco in 2011 … a long time between drinks
Got a stream of your first gig going right here if you’re interested:
https://theshackproject.com/the-shack-stream/1997-04-11/
Killer show, really! SUPER early presence of the Down On Me melody, and a couple of tunes only heard from in ’97: “Fast Clicks” and “Dysfunctional Ash Groove” (unofficial titles) — that latter groove is heavy! Nice precursor to tunes like We Are Rolling and Miles Behind.
Thanks Dug but it was the 4/17 show … I would like to hear it again though 🙂
Oh, I must have been a bit “groggy” reading “4/11″ – HA! I’ve got 4/17, so let me see about getting up a torrent and stream ASAP …
London Barbican 2001/1/21 (or thenabouts). I had no idea what I was being taken to but was leaning forward from the opening improv onwards. Half way through was a tune that was hugely familiar from my past but I just couldn’t place. BBC broadcast the first hour of the show which I taped and dissected in minute detail trying to make sense of how it all fitted together. Throughout the show it was the blend of improv and composed themes that blew me away. There was a double dose of The Dropper, that riff became an earworm for months. And I realised that the mystery tune was 3rd Stone. I have seen them every tour in the UK since, including Brighton in 2007 (?) when Medeski got his hands on the huge Brighton Pavillion pipe organ which was quite something to see/hear. Best show yet was Ronnie Scott’s 2013, a tiny club where they blew the roof off.
No going back!
Nice! The Barbican gig was actually 2001-01-20:
https://theshackproject.com/the-shack-stream/2001-01-20/
… love what we’ve got from that set, although I’ve always presumed we only got a partial set from that FM source. 3rd Stone is particularly nice on this gig, and yeah, Hermeto’s sandwiched inside The Dropper is pretty unique! Great show and sound is wicked good on that recording.