I saw the Stanton Moore Trio last night (review)

[willyz]

I caught wind of this gig about a week and a half ago, and I was really excited to see them live after being quite familiar with Stanton's solo records with the trio and of course being a big fan of Galactic (saw them earlier this year too).

The trio was apparently the backing band for Anders Osborne, whom I'd never really heard of before, and the gig was billed as "Anders Osborne featuring the Stanton Moore Trio." I was a a little weary about going at first, because as great as it would have been seeing them play, I really had no idea what this other cat was like... boy, was I in for a treat!

So I get to the gig (at the Parish, downtown Austin) and the doors eventually open and I walk up the stairs (the Parish is a large room, 3 floors up) and I'm pretty much the only one in the room at the time and then there's Stanton still kind of goofing around and sound checking. The kit was a Gretsch USA Custom probably in Walnut finish, 12x8, 14x14, 16x16, and it had to have been an 18x14 kick (which sounded HUGE!). He had a few snares lined up behind him, and his usual cymbals (which also sounded great). Stanton was talking to his buddy on stage, playing some brushes, talking about some stuff that he was working on with Jeff Hamilton, and he was playing some samba-ish licks with the brushes that just sounded really hip. I stood pretty much right to the left of his kit and noted the great posture, a great left hand, and took note that he doesn't really reach for the different parts of the kit- he was very relaxed.

The great thing about Stanton Moore is that the guy just oozes groove, and as soon as he starts playing (even while goofing around with his mate and sound checking) he gets this big grin on his face and you can see he's really enjoying himself. That's a big thing for me... the guy generally really really really enjoys playing and that's the thing for him.

The gig was supposed to start at 10:00 but the trio didn't get on till about 10:20. Now, here's the cool thing: they ended up playing the entire first set, so they played for about 2 hours. Sick! They played a bunch of tunes from Stanton's records and they were smokin'! Will Brenard is a stellar guitar player, super funky, and really gets in deep during his solos... these cats really listen to each other and they know the song forms inside and out. That's the next thing: the chemistry here was just unreal. Lo's of eye contact, all the figures were hit (and Stanton has a way of setting up and hitting those figures so musically), and lots of smiles. Trust me, as fun as these guys were to watch/hear play, I'm sure they were having even more fun (and now I really want to find an Organ trio to play with!) up on stage playing.

Stanton is simply ferocious behind the kit, and dare I say, maybe even slightly underrated. I don't think he gets enough rep around here. The way he can pull a groove back ever so slightly, while keeping the quarter note where it is is just magical. He is one funky cat for sure! His left hand is stunning! He's got this great lick were he does a push/pull-looking sorta thing with his left hand (traditional, but he switches back and forth between traditional and match effortlessly throughout), which looks a lot like the sort of thing that Jeff Hamilton will do, and he'll crescendo while keeping a back beat on the right hand and filling in on the floor toms...

Now, this guy makes an 18" kick sound massive (I heard it naturally, as I was dead center up front and could hear the instruments naturally). His snare had a great snap to it and he could really manipulate the snares to get that dirty "2nd line thang" happening. I really want a Gretsch kit now too! Anyway, there were plenty of chances for Stanton to blow (as well as the organ and guitar), and it was usually always under some sort of vamp. The groovy thing was that the other guys didn't always play the vamp, but they all knew the form so well that the tempo stayed the same and could get back in where they're supposed to... not uncommon, but there was just so much power to the communication these guys have. Yes friends, Stanton Moore is no stranger to the blushda, and has some really cool variations on the old-school 2 against 3 thing and has fantastic interplay between his hands and the kick, and you can really hear the Bonham influence at times. But what really stands out to me is his feel, his groove, and his vibe.

I'm kicking myself for not bringing a camera, because ya'll would have really dug this stuff. Buy some of his records if you're not familiar, and if they're coming to your town, do yourself a favor and get out and see them and you'll have an insanely musical and funky night!

[Rhythmatist]

Yeah, Stanton is one real-deal bad-ass muthaf*cker!!! Thanks for sharing, Willy. I'm hoping I can catch him in Chicago in Feb. So far I have the date open.

[Juan Expósito]

Thanks for the review and sharing.

[amoergosum]

Stanton Moore is THE man...
check out these two new clips here (11/18/2010)...fuuuuuunky !!! >>>

[Christopher]

Thanks for the review. Sounds like it was a blast.

He's coming to Philly in February with Galactic.

Can't wait.

[Mike Meyers]

Stanton is a great dude and a monstrous drummer/musician! DrumCounselor on this forum was playing with Mike Dillon (Mike plays in Garage A Trois with Stanton) and got to tour with Galactic for a bit. They are pretty good friends and we get to hang out with Stanton & Galactic when they come to town. We picked up Stanton to take him to the venue and I got to hear the rough tracks for "From the Corner to the Block" in my van from Stanton's iPod. Really cool! I need to go back and listen to his stuff again. As I remember, DimeADozen.com had a few live shows of Stanton's trio a while back. He also sells some live show downloads from his personal site www.stantonmoore.com.

Get his DVD's and books! They're great!

Mike

[Christopher]

Just found there are loads of live recordings of Stanton's trio on http://www.archive.org/details/StantonMoore

I'm listening to this at the moment...

http://www.archive.org/details/smooretr ... ard.flac16

Good stuff.

[amoergosum]

NAMM 2011 >>>

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