I went to see a set of amazing music last night at Barbes. It was a trio with Tom Rainey, Ingrid Laubrach and Mary Halvorson. This trio was fantastic. So much became clear to me. It was one of those situations where you listen to someone for years on CD and then you see them play a set music and all that shit that you heard is right there in front of you.

He tunes his bass drum really low, which is something that I am really feeling right now. He also plays with small (20"?), thin cymbals in a very classic set up of 4 piece drums, 2 cymbals and hi hat. I think he was using a plastic garbage bag as his stick bag. I got a real kick out of that. It was a real honor to see him play.

As for the ladies, Oh man. They were the real show. There is a certain amount of gravitational pull that makes the listener become entranced on every single thing that Mary does. I think that she is basically the female version of my friend Yozo Suzuki. (Yozo, I hope you get the chance to meet her some day.) She used the nasty and dirty sounds that her guitar naturally produces due to poor wiring and counterpoints that against some of the most thematic and fresh sounding electronics I've heard in a while.

Ingrid really took her time to develop her ideas, but was never afraid to jump into an idea head first. I really liked the breath in her horn sound. She sweats like I sweat when I play the drums, and for those of you who have seen me, you know what I'm talking about.

Well, hope you get to see this trio. Please be sure to support these incredible improvisors.

Now...off to work.