Sound Tribe Sector 9 2002-12-5

Sound Tribe Sector 9 2002-12-5 The Catalyst Santa Cruz, CA (Video Stream/Download)

I had intended today's offering to be a New Year's set featuring Sound Tribe Sector 9. I love a good New Year's show to get pumped up for the next 365 day haul, and STS9 has done a number of them. However, I've realized that a good number of people even within the festival and taper community actually aren't that familiar with them, and the experience simply isn't complete without the colorful visual aspect they bring to their shows. STS9 offers a unique multimedia experience to the live showgoer, on stage there are likely flowers, rocks, and gems. They also invite painters, floral arrangers, and even mechanical typewriter-artists to participate.

Jefree Lerner (Percussionist) "There are lots of forums for live music, but there's not too many forums for live painting. We kind of wanted to open up the stage as a platform for any type of art. We've had people typing on a manual typewriter behind us. We have had everything from people reciting poetry to offering flower arrangements. Basically, we want to maintain the stage as an opportunity to showcase different forms of art, as well as interpreting music. "Sound Tribe" refers to a collective of artists and musicians. They are all part of the family."

Luckily, a great primer for the Sound Tribe experience has already been created: A one hour set graciously provided for our free, legal, non-commercial enjoyment by the GrooveTV crew over at SCCTV, a community television station in Santa Cruz, CA. It is with great pleasure that I present the Jive Father's first video post. But first, a bit about the band...

Sound Tribe Sector 9, as a sonic entity, really defies labeling. At this very moment, I tremble anxiously at the prospect of genre tagging this post as I know I must do when I finish it. (I'm hopeful another beer might help...?) They've been embraced by many in the "jam band" crowd, but they only really fit that mold based on audience. It's a sort of ambient electrojam, I suppose. Whatever it is, they do it very, very well. Listen for one or two minutes, and you might find yourself saying "What is this noise, and what drugs was Chris on to recommend it?!?", but give it another few minutes and you'll start to hear the elements pull together: Zach Felmer doing his best Jon Fishman impression, holding a robotically precise drumbeat; Dave Murphy making sonic glue with his bass lines; David Phipps adding dimensions of depth on keys; Hunter Brown with his ethereal guitar work; and Jefree Lerner with his percussive work. Listen through the show, and I hope you are wondering why you've slept on them before or why you haven't seen them live lately.

They are truly greater than the sum of their parts, and they play like some universal force brought them together to make this beautifully eclectic mess.

The set is a crisp and wild one hour investment. The show vaults from good to excellent as soon as they hit "Tap In" and its electrifying intro, and the greatness doesn't stop from there. The track listing looks like this:

Moonsocket, Call > Tap In, Ramone & Emiglio > Eb > Ramone & Emiglio. End credits: Baraka

David Phipps - Keyboards, Hunter Brown - Guitar, Jeffree Lerner - Percussion, David Murphy - Bass, Zach Velmer - Drums

Sound quality is A+, video quality is an A- as long as you download the MPEG1 version, which I highly recommend. Please resist the urge to stream this show, it's convenient but the quality isn't there. Sound credits go to Marco Walsh and GrooveTV. Photo credit.