PRINCE RAMA OF AYODHYA
A THOUSAND CRANES
@ mango's 9-14-09 houston tx
(note: blackie was sick so he had to cancel)..
jen and i started our evening by wandering over to half price books on westheimer. she was checking out books on philosophies of indian cooking. not recipes or anything - we have a copy of lord krishna's cuisine by yamuna devi so we are good there - just the ideas behind it. don't let anyone tell you cooking food is just cooking food. if that were true we'd all starve to death. i was immersed in the photo book yes rasta by patrick cariou. i found the book deeply inspiring (go and read the introductory essay, you'll see). we were both sad that we left empty handed (i should have bought it) but we're on the punk rock budget these days. so went and shared some hummus and headed to mango's.
A THOUSAND CRANES were much different this night than our previous encounters with them. travis performed with members of prince rama in an epic set of improvised mystic song that had me thinking about pharoah sanders hanging out with rasta sects in the hills of jamaica. and i do not mean that in a dub way or anything - but the feeling of otherness, the realization that the world is nothing more than illusion or a cruel practical joke perpetuated by some vast corporate entity on the peoples of the world who fall for it hook, line and sinker. and there was fire. and there were strobe lights firing back at the audience and it looked like travis was leaving his body. optical illusion or seeing some sort of truth i'd never noticed before?
PRINCE RAMA OF AYODHYA was a band i'd heard about from travis and other people in this community since we lost our jobs and started hanging out. they are a trio living in boston (though maybe not for long) made up of sisters tanaka and nimai larson and (secret weapon) michael collins. they handed out small, loud percussive instruments to the audience before their set (actually we reached into a magic bag and pulled them out) letting the audience totally in on the performance. their music was this total maelstrom of drums & drones & spiritual celebration mixed with sci-fi synths. it was like seeing a performance by krishna devotees on mars. it was both stunning and inspiring and its still going on in my head as i type this 10 hours later or so..
LORD JEFF is from northampton, massachusetts near where jen went to boarding school (and a member of lord jeff's girlfriend went to the same school - small world). lord jeff were like booker t & the mg's with a taste for modern r & b (to the point of brilliantly covering i'm n luv (wit a stripper) - if only mike jones was there and we could have screwed and chopped it..) a total garage band writing deceptively awesome songs. this band should play every new years eve celebration until the world ends - i mean, i can't stand new years eve but i could get up for this.
perhaps the highlight of the evening was afterwards, just hanging outside mango's on this warm late summers night with all these people who'd just played and we'd just met. talking about how much public school sucked (or how awesome it was). or how much private school sucked (or how awesome it was). telling tales out of school about born to run, florida, suicidal tendencies, thurston moore, jim jarmusch and college hockey. dude, that is what punk rock is about.
-rich kimball
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