Woot!
Last night Mr. Val and I ventured into Albany's strangest piece of architecture, The Egg, to hear one of the most amazing bass players of all time, Victor Wooten.
First, a bit about the venue. Check out The Egg from Google's street-level maps:
I tried to take some pictures inside, but alas, my camera batteries died. :-( We parked underneath the Plaza (which is what you're looking at in that pic) and wandered around with a large group of people until we found elevators to take us to The Egg. It was rather confusing in that parking garage and no one seemed to know where to go (signs for Egg parking pointed one way, but on foot you have to go another). Finally we managed to make it up to ground level, at which point we located another set of elevators to take us into the venue. Now these elevators were sweet. They were round. I'd never been in a round elevator. There was even a dude sitting on a stool to take us where we were going. He was this giant dude in all black and he even wore a beret. The dude just reeked of cool. Once off the round elevator we were met by an usher every ten feet who would point us to where we were going (why weren't they in the parking garage??). Inside The Egg's lobby (and I *really* wish my camera was working) the wall was shaped just like the outside. I was getting really dizzy (the kind of dizzy you get when you put on a new pair of glasses), so we made a quick bee-line for our seats. The auditorium was much small than I expected it to be considering the massive size of the outer structure. But it made for a very intimate setting. Every seat in the house was a good one.
Vic Wooten is the bass player for Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, but tonight, it was just Victor Wooten and his band. If you don't know much about Wooten, know this: he rawks. The guy plays the bass the way a classical guitarist plays a guitar. His band is unique in that there is a singer, guitar player, drummer, keyboardist, bassist and then there is Vic on lead bass. That's right, there's a lead bass. How sweet is that? Here's a short clip from Youtube so you can see what the man can do:
I really can't say enough about the band, they were so amazing. When we saw Vic a number of years ago in a little bar in Saratoga he was playing with his brothers, so it was a treat that Vic's brother Regi Wooten was playing guitar for the band last night. We can all thank Regi for introducing Vic to the bass at the tender age of TWO! While Regi mostly hung off to the side and supported the band with standard funky guitar lines, he did have a couple of solos that brought down the house. When it was his moment in the spotlight, he took it. He was dancing, spinning the guitar around his head, playing it with his teeth and he even played it like a piano while a stage tech held it for him. Oh yeah, and at the end of one particularly crazy solo, the neck lit up with blue lights.
Vic's bass player, Anthony Wellington totally held his own in dueling basses against Vic. He was cute, charming and funky as hell. It was fun watching him play and he was given lots of spotlight time for our enjoyment.
Derico Watson kept it all together on drums. In an introduction to a drum solo, we learn that he only had ONE bass pedal. My jaw hit the floor during the solo, he was simply amazing. No man's legs and arms should be able to do those kinds of things. He kept it interesting through the whole show and was a master of dynamics, perfectly supporting the band.
You could say that about anyone in the band too. They really just seemed to enjoy playing the music and supported one another the whole time. There was an air of camaraderie that was undeniably electric and it spread through the whole auditorium. It made for an unforgettable show.
Don't forget to pick up Victor's newest album Palmystery. It goes on sale April 1st.
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Val, you can call those 4 buildings in a row "the Bacon". Rockefeller's Folly. Kevin and I would sit down there and 420 and there were so many cool things to stare at...and stare at....and stare at,lol. I'm home so round two of pics from our visit can't be far off.