The new blog is only a few hours old, and already I’m having to resist the urge to curse. Because holy freakin’ smokes, man, the Empty Space Orchestra laid waste to Father Luke’s Room at McMenamins Old St. Francis School on Wednesday night.
Mingling between and after the band’s two sets, I told anyone who would listen how much better I thought ESO is right now than they were even six months ago, when I saw them at Silver Moon.
There was some serious pre-funk buzz about this gig, and that fed a good-sized crowd there to see the Empty Spacers fete the release of their new album, “Big Bang,” with a powerful show that stretched well beyond the two-hour mark.
The first set was dedicated to songs from “Big Bang,” and the second to newer material.
The band’s founding trio – drummer Lindsey Elias, guitarist Shane Thomas and keyboardist Keith O’Dell – recorded the album, as you may already know, with saxophone player Graham Jacobs, who has since departed for Costa Rica for a while. As a result, “Big Bang” has a fairly jazzy feel, and so did Wednesday’s first set. There were moments of dense, instrumental rock ‘n’ roll, but even when ESO tried to rough up the older tracks (relatively speaking; they’re a year old or less), O’Dell’s cascading keyboard parts kept things light.
But that didn’t last long. The band ended its first set with the getting-to-be-famous all-hands-on-drums breakdown of “Pandamonium.” It was a harbinger of things to come.
With Jacobs gone indefinitely, Elias, Thomas and O’Dell brought in local super-bassist Pat Pearsall a few months ago, allowing Thomas – who had been playing bass – to move to guitar.
The effect is monstrous.
In between sets, I told Thomas I wanted my face melted, and he and his mates delivered. Empty Space’s new stuff is heavier and more varied, ranging from Atari-style bleeps and bloops to bona fide prog-rock to damn near heavy metal. The addition of guitar has moved ESO from an indie-jazz outfit to a muscular rock band in the same vein as Austin, Texas instrumental heroes Explosions In The Sky.
Thomas wrangles terrific noises out of his guitar. O’Dell adds color and texture. Pearsall’s bass rumbles like a fast-moving storm. And Elias is as ferocious a drummer as you’ll see in this town. She’s not only the engine for this ship, she’s also the rudder. Together, the quartet unleashed a flood of creativity, playing stuff that sounded like the soundtrack to space exploration, and other stuff that sounded like the Oompa Loompa song re-written for the year 3000.
It was hard not to keep my jaw off the floor, frankly, as a new song called “Clouds” evolved from droning groove to chugging rock to an airy pop song with a centipede piano melody.
And people love the percussion freakouts, where all four members man drums of some kind. It’s a polyrhythmic spectacle, thudding and tribal. Thomas even banged on a shovel, though the most enduring image of the evening was watching him pound a floor tom, winding up like he was driving a stubborn nail.
When all the noise finally stopped, and the cheering faded out, I couldn’t help feel like I had watched something special. Because watching a band become awesome is special.
Here’s some video action for ya. (There’s a six-minute version of this song, complete with ominous, robotic intro, right here.)
Tags: Empty Space Orchestra
