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OM Trio
Knitting Factory | West Hollywood, CA | 11.15.02
There was magic happening in the heart of old Hollywood on the night the new Harry Potter movie opened. While more than 200 moviegoers in various forms of wizard attire waited in a line that twisted around the block at the famous Grauman's Chinese Theatre, those in the know ducked into the Knitting Factory’s Alterknit Lounge to experience some real mojo from the OM Trio.
Nestled in the same center as Grauman’s Chinese Theater, the Knitting Factory boasts several state-of-the-art sound systems in its multiple rooms. On this night, there were at least two other events happening in the complex. This led to a strange mix of club goers and jazz aficionados milling around the entrance together, under the bemused eyes of the security guards.
Once in the Alterknit, the vibe improved tenfold. The band wasn’t playing yet, and the fans in attendance were patiently sitting on the floor. Drummer Ilya Stemkovsky’s kit had a prominent position in the lineup, and when the band started, the reason was known immediately. This man-child’s ferocious pace on the drums led the OM Trio through a powerful night of sound that can only be labeled as jazz-metal meets trance.
The OM Trio specializes in improvisational grooves, which made up most of the night. While Stemkovsky and bassist Pete Novembre set a blazing, near synchronized pace all evening, keyboardist Brian Felix added a mixture of textures and sounds that balanced out the mix.
Felix’s funky keyboards provided a break from the intensity of the drums and bass. His diminutive physical presence is also a stark difference from the imposing stature of the other two players. Felix appears to be the good kid in the bunch. Novembre wore a crafty smile all night and it is obvious that Stemkovsky is a maniac.
The OM Trio’s power and appeal comes from their raw energy, which can’t be slowed down by a few petty injuries. November wore a bandage on his thumb all night, the result of an accident on a Golden Tee Machine. Stemkovsky earned a blister on his left hand so gnarly and deep that a lesser man would have left the stage. While pounding his kit with one hand and using both feet to create separate beats, he examined his blister, then turned to Novembre and showed him. He simply smiled, shrugged his shoulders and continued a steady, probing assault on his strings.
Novembre does not use any effects, but Felix uses a multi-effect pedal, placed on top of his keyboards. He pressed buttons and turned dials to play with sounds generated from his instrument. During their trance jams, Stemkovsky carefully placed cymbals over his drums, while keeping perfect rhythm, to create an effect that caused the drummers in the room to move closer and look for his triggers. It was a very cool effect that drastically altered how the drums sounded, making them more machinelike.
Along with Novembre, it is obvious that Ilya has grown up listening to a lot of hard rock. Bands like Tool, Rage Against The Machine and Nirvana appeared to be as much of an influence as Phish, Herbie Hancock, or Medeski Martin and Wood. This makes for an eclectic night of music that has the tendency to jump into many different musical styles.
A dirty reggae version of Living Color’s “Cult of Personality” closed the first set. The second set was filled with more improvisation and covers. After his mic refused to work, Stemkovsky left his drums for Felix's mic. He thanked the crowd for coming to the show and introduced the next jam as, "even if I played bass, Brian played drums and Peter played keyboards, we would be more entertaining then Harry fucking Potter." Yes indeed.
Later in their set, the OM Trio entertained the crowd with a raucous version of “Bombtrack” from Rage’s first album, as well as a moving “Earth Angel” that Stemkovsky banged out on the keyboards as the band switched instruments for the song. As Novembre took over the drums and Felix the bass, Stemkovsky crooned the ballad, with a little help from the crowd. After a diatribe on the current state of Nirvana and the evilness of “Courtney Hole,” he bounced back to his drums to begin a rocking version of Nirvana’s “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter.”
By playing complicated jazz standards with high level of intensity, the OM Trio locks listeners into their groove. A few people were dancing or at least bobbing their head, but most of the crowd simply stared with their jaws in their hands at what the musicians were doing onstage.
This show was the band’s first stop in California after traversing the entire country (and Pennsylvania at least twice) in a van. The guys kept a detailed and hilarious account of their journey, which you can read online at OMTrio.com and on JamBase.
Shortly after OM Trio’s LA gig, the Boom Boom Room threw the band a homecoming party at San Francisco’s Justice League. It’s nice to have them back in California.
Forrest Reda
JamBase | Los Angeles
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