Daniel Lanois / Tortoise - Seattle, WA

Tortoise has achieved a level of fame due to their association with the homogenized genre, Post-Rock, and it's birthplace, Chicago. Since the mid-nineties, Tortoise has been putting out albums that have been labeled with such adjectives as Cinematic, Contextual, and Rhythmic, with the band receiving copious amounts of praise for their originality and musicianship. Member John McEntire has also been praised as a masterful audio engineer, who's studio, SOMA, is one of Chicago's premier recording destinations and the birthplace of the majority of Tortoise's album content. So what are they like live? Can their reputation stand?

Having seen Tortoise a few times, I expected a relatively good show to come from these people. I had seen them last on the Standards tour and I remember being very impressed. I missed them on the last one in support of It's All Around You,, however. Then I took note that they were touring the world, doing collaborations with Konono no.1 (an African ensemble whose debut, Congotronics, is well worth listening to) and started to see guitarist Jeff Parker's name float up a little more in his native jazz world. Tortoise was playing with great artists all over the world. With this tour, they are playing with Daniel Lanois, a renowned record producer (Bob Dylan, U2) and seasoned musician.

Tortoise play musical chairs live. Although McEntire's drumming presence on albums is heavy, John Herndon plays almost the whole time while live, adding his powerhouse approach to relatively jazz based compositions. I was pleased that both of the band's drum sets were placed in front of all other instruments. While playing Swing from the Gutters, both John McEntire and John Herndon were present playing sets, with McEntire stopping to play a Melodica for verses. In this extended version, the band's Dub influence was present as they added a breakdown mid-song. Bassist/Baritone guitarist Doug McCombs played the most stationary all throughout the show. The set moved into material off of It's All Around You, with Dan Bitney (check out his former punk band, Tar Babies, from Madison, WI) switching seamlessly from bass to drums to vibraphone. John McEntire switched to keyboards and was seen giving up his stoic facial expression, smiling while playing his tambourine.

People started to really get into the beat as the band played Eden 2, off of Standards, giving the original composition a little more funk. Jeff Parker played through all songs with added ornaments to his superb guitar work, giving a new feel to material played over the years. A projection played varying geometric shapes in colors through the show, while the performers were bathed in red and blue light.

While the set that Tortoise played could have incorporated a little more of their older material, the song choice and presentation of the set was flawless overall, with all members playing in top form and having fun as well. Tortoise is just wrapping up their US tour with Daniel Lanois.