Tao of Pauly

Galactic!

Here's a mini review. I will write a larger review later when I get setlist confirmation, so I'll just blog the notes that I wrote up when I got home last night...

11.15.02
Jessica's first Galactic show... got there early and Jessica made friend's with this Canadian girl with a cowboy hat... the North Mississippi All-Stars opened... a great opening act... couple of good moments... found Modeski at the end of their set... kind of crowded, but tickets were still available when I got to the venue... 1/5 crowd was Phishkids, 1/5 were the NOLA crew of funky funkoholics.... the remainder of the crowd were Todd & Jens... Galactic had alot of guests playing with them... a couple of painters were on stage working on a huge mural like painting... at least 10 feet high and maybe twenty feet long... two or three artists were painting throughout the night... some dude was video taping them paint... Galactic came on later than I expected... opened with a tight jam... knew they were on... they played IMUS yesterday morning after 4 hours of sleep... looked like they got some rest... second song was with G. Love and he was rapping... thrid tune was Root Down and Rob on bass was smoking... he always looks like he just woke up, with perpetual bed head, and that fresh "wake & bake" look on his face... Stanton Moore was kicking it out all night, and proved to me why I think he's the best drummer in America... The Houseman was pimping bigtime! With a black leather suit, he was sleek and ready to make all the ladies yell out loud... He came out for 3 songs... the last one he played was a Led Zepplin cover: Whole Lotta Love, which kicked my ass... I wanted to hear that... at some point I look over and Modeski had 3 beers! He gave me one and double fisted the rest of the set... the next song featured the NYC Break Dancers... three guys in Adidas clothing were break dancing on stage in front of Stanton Moore's drum kit... it was sick!... old school... Galactic played some hip hop song that I know the beat & groove too, but I don't know the name of the song (it was featured in the Kirsten Dunst movie Bring It On when the cheerleaders from the ghetto school were doing their cheer)... anyway, the crowd exploded when Ben busted into that jam, and the break dancers were hamming it up for the crowd and they got Stanton going wild, and his true alien self came out, and was jumping up and down like a controlled madman, when he was druming... the last song of the set featured a brass band from N'arlins called Bonerama and they played another Zepplin song, which I think was The Ocean... but I am not too sure... at any rate, the tuba player, and four other horn players were having a great time... we lost Modeski at setbreak... but what's a show without losing Modeski at setbreak?... second set was sick, sicker than sick, it was fucked up... much tighter and harder jamming... opened with a loud, sizzling, delicious Black Eyed Pea and Jeff Raines on guitar took control... he's always the quietest member of Galactic, but last night he stepped up for set 2... he kicked out some nice licks and the crowd was into BEP for sure... one of my favorite Galactic tunes!... the second song, I know, but the name escapes me... it could be Royal Exchange?... it was heavy, and trippy and had that Middle Eastern horn action from Ben Ellman on sax and Rich Vogel on keys was going off on this song... the third song had a nice Phishy flow to most of it, until they funked out the end of it... then the Houseman came back out for 3 songs... they started with the Shuggie Otis cover of Ice Cold Daydream which is one of my favorite Houseman songs these days.... Aaron Neville sat in on keys for the second song, which I think was a Funky Meters song?... Everybody Let's Get Together? or something like that... Aaron and the Houseman sung on that tune... when the Houseman left, the boys busted out Tippi Toes, which was the one song that Jessica wanted to hear, b/c it's her favorite Funky Meters tune... Jeff was grooving on guitar for Tippi, and the crowd was digging it... I can't recall the last two songs... but oh, well... it was kinda fuzzy at that point! And then for the encore, the NYC Breakers came back out and went nuts in front of Stanton who was beating down the alien beats, jumping up and down at the end of Shibuya! which had the crowd jumping up and down and loving the dancers on stage... all in all, one of the better Galactic shows I had seen in recent days... high energy, tight set, good song selection, not too much Houseman, a few guests, and I appreaciated the mixture and combination of various art forms... music and different musicians, and break dancing, and painters, and the guy filming it all, and of course, me smoking down doobies, which we all know is an art form...


Galactic
11.15.02, Roseland Ballroom, NYC

Partial setlists...

Set 1:
? Jam >
Jam w/ G. Love >
Root Down
Houseman Song
Houseman Song 2
Whole Lotta Love (w/ the Houseman)
??
Hip Hop Jam w/ NYC Break Dancers
? Zepplin Cover: The Ocean?? w/ Bonerama Brass Band

Set 2:
Black Eyed Pea >
? Royal Exchange ?
? Phishy > Funky Jam
Ice Cold Daydream (w/ Houseman)
? Everybody Must Get Together (w/ Houseman & Aaron Neville on Keys)
? Houseman Song
Tippi Toes
?
?

Encore:
Shibuya! (w/ NYC Breakers)