Ben Allison menacingly lurched toward Steve Cardenas at Mod Gallery on Sunday, February 17. An instant before it seemed as if the bassist was about to strike the guitarist who was shredding with unconscious abandon, Allison pulled back and smiled.
The theatrical gesture reflected the threatening tone of the first set of the touring quartet from New York. Violence was implied in Cardenas’ furious guitar attack. Allison’s electric bass rumbled like a tank brigade while the drumming of Allan Mednard ricocheted off the bare walls of the room like the blasts of a machine gun. Trumpeter Shane Endsley of Kneebody was often overpowered by his bandmates. (Here’s a representative snippet.)
The volume was justified. The longtime collaborators continue to make vital and consistently surprising music. While I was eager to hear a few more selections featuring Allison on acoustic bass in subsequent sets, I abandoned the audience of about 60 at Mod Gallery for a different type of thrill a few blocks away.
(Original image by Plastic Sax.)
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