Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Cornelius at the 9:30 Club

This past weekend, I went to 9:30 club to see Japanese musician Cornelius play.
After eating some great soul food and bearing the set of a Medeski, Martin & Wood-inspired jam duo, Cornelius and his groups came on stage. They started with a large sheet in front of the stage- soon a video projection started introducing the show as the "Sensuous Synchronous Show". Then after seeing band members' silhouettes backlit on the sheet, it dropped down to reveal the band playing.
Cornelius and his band were really good. They changed music styles with great ease- from pop to ambient to metal to disco.
His video show though was pretty spectacular and, as promised, completely in sync with the music. Highlights included a video that started looking like sound waves, but was in actuality flowing water filmed sideways. I also liked another video that had a hand walking around a room.
Cornelius was also very engaging with the audience: he pulled a kid onstage to play the theremin, and he also passed a sampler with large buttons into the front row of the audience to play.
He put on a great show.