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Of course there's homo-erotic energy! That's exactly what's going on. How can you really play well with a band if you aren't totally tuned into who they are and what they're doing?
-Bobby Previte |
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Bobby Previte by Ziga Koritnick
Previte's world-view is hard to ascertain. He asserted several times over the course of our conversation that I could get just as compelling an interview by talking to Random Record Buyer or Coincidental Concert Goer. I wasn't buying it. I still wanted to know what it all meant to him - the name of the band, the record, our entire existence on this planet - because after all, it had to mean something.
"The Coalition of the Willing" recording band
Bernstein, Saft, Hunter, Previte, Moore, Skerik
By Michael DiDonna |
"Does it?" he asked with a baited smile.
"Well it seems like it'd be a whole lot of wasted time, energy, and effort if it didn't mean anything," I replied. His smile broke into laughter as he said, "OK, I'm just playing a little bit, but meaning is an interesting word. What does it mean?"
"I'll rephrase – what does it evoke in you?"
"Well, the cover of the album is all Russian constructivist, quasi-socialist art, rise up, blah blah. The titles are from Orwell, police state, mind control, you can draw your obvious conclusions there, it's not rocket science. Then I include a quote from 1984, one of Orwell's most obscure quotes, which is saying, if you really read it, that it's all hopeless. This is all bullshit. No revolution ever accomplishes anything other than a changing of the masters. The people in the lowest class will always be in the lowest class, and society is arranged so that they never have the ability to surmount their position. I believe that. I believe a lot of things. I also believe that people have allowed other people to tell them what to think, to control them, the whole thing. I mean, it's CRAZY what's going on in our world today. I also wanted to co-opt the term "coalition of the willing," so that when you Googled it, you wouldn't get Colin Powell. Instead, you'd get Bobby Previte or Skerik. So here are these two opposite concepts – rise up and fight but really it's never going to get you anywhere. What happens when you put these seemingly incongruous two things next to each other? It's like Mark Rothko paintings. He paints these huge blocks of color and puts them next to each other on one canvas. When you look at it close up, it's just orange and blue, but when you take a step back, they start to vibrate. You can see how the two affect each other. I like putting things like that together and seeing what comes up for different people."
For me, Coalition of the Willing on disc and the Coalition in concert were as disparate as vegan bacon, though we all know such a thing exists. The album is by far the best studio recording I've heard in years. The sound is huge, polished, and subversive all at once. It laughs in the face of the quote on its inside panel, suggesting that revolution is tangible, attainable, and the only logical choice to make. Previte pointed out that the real unsung hero of the album is Jamie Saft, who plays organ and bass on the record. The more I listen to it, I wonder why he chose Benevento as his touring keyboardist, not because I doubt Benevento's skill, but because Saft is unbelievably effective. The disc evoked images of early Police, but harder and smarter. The album had a clear arc and delivered a lucent, powerfully moving message that spoke to me on a deeply personal level. Because of that, I really wanted to love the Coalition at The Independent on May 20th, but I didn't. It was an enjoyable evening and there were moments that I liked, but I didn't love it. There were some highlights. Charlie Hunter on a six-string guitar is a rare treat. He abandoned all trappings of jazz for unconditional and unrepentant thrash guitar, mixing metal and rock with adroit skill.
Hunter - COTW :: 05.20
By Vann |
I've known Charlie for a few years now, and he is always extremely friendly and easy-going. That night, I could not stop thinking that he looked just like Satan. I could easily see him with horns and a tail, wielding a guitar instead of a pitchfork. It was also obvious that this band was extraordinarily in tune with each other, improvisationally and musically. There was a real, homo-erotic energy on stage, so much so that I wouldn't have been surprised if Skerik and Benevento had started making out between songs. I very cautiously mentioned that observation to Previte, and he replied, "Of course there's homo-erotic energy! That's exactly what's going on. How can you really play well with a band if you aren't totally tuned into who they are and what they're doing?"
Bobby Previte - COTW :: 05.20 :: SF by Dave Vann |
I also felt that individually Skerik and Benevento were playing far better than I had heard either one play before. While the group's improvisational sense with each other was innate, the end result was far more dissonant and cacophonous than melodic. This is not to say that everything has to have a melody to be good, but in most songs there wasn't even a sliver of something to which I could relate. Once I would grasp a riff and begin to feel it, the pace or tone would change, giving the music a somewhat frenetic feel. They were obviously bringing out the most adventurous and daring sides of each other improvisationally. I often just couldn't relate, no matter how much I wanted to.
However, this is just my view. And if you ask Bobby Previte, my opinion is meaningless because I can never hear anything with your ears, and your ears are the only ones that matter. In spite of the fact that I didn't love the show, I would still emphatically recommend purchasing the album and seeing the band perform live. It's aggressive sonic art at its finest. At least that's what my ears think.
JamBase | San Francisco
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