27th September 2009

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Last night, I was assaulted.  I mean, with sound.  Y’know, figuratively.

When Peter Evans began playing his trumpet, things immediately got weird. The array of sounds he was able to make with simply a trumpet, piccolo trumpet, and a wah-pedal were staggering. At times his sounds were like those of a theremin, and near the end, if you closed your eyes, you would swear you were hearing a weedwacker. From electronic static to Caribbean steelpans, it quickly became clear during his 50 minute set that Evans has a lot of range.

Sitting in the second row, I was scared I’d get wet, as Evans’ saliva was a big part of his performance. At times it sounded like he was playing his instruments under water, and, pretty quickly, I could see the reason why. Every few minutes, he would open a valve on one of his instruments, and snakes of his spit would pour out, splashing on the ground in front of him.

He really puts a lot of himself into his performances. He sometimes looked like a rabid animal, and a good portion of the sound heard during his piece came straight from his mouth, without first passing through a trumpet.  At other times, the way he was playing seemed downright inappropriate; he was practically essing the trumpets D.

By the end of the set, Evans was drenched in sweat, and he looked exhausted. And it’s easy to see why. He was able to do what takes most noise-bands several distortion pedals and a load of electronics with pretty much one instrument.

When he was finished, he quickly left the room. Though his performance was unrestrained and clamorous, Evans is anything but that. He made his farewell comments to the audience while they were in the middle of their roaring applause, and even those in the front row were unable to make out what he said. The attention seemed to make him uneasy, and he spent most of the recital with his eyes closed.

Part of the experience is watching the crowd, and I was able to catch a few older guys chuckling to each other at who knows what (jazz jokes, y’know?).  And there was one dude near the front who kept looking around the room, to make see if anyone noticed how visibly the guy sitting next to him was having his mind blown.  He looked annoyed.

Tagged: getting into a serious thinghonkers and squeakersPeter Evans