Avant-garde at the Avant-Garde

We interrupt our Bluesfest posts for some stuff outside the festival. And when I say outside, I mean outside! Well, it was actually inside, but it was, like, out - y'know? Instead of waiting in the crush to see Wilco, I went off to the Avant-Garde for my customary cheesecake and a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see Japan's Tetuzi Akiyama. He was touring with Montreal's Harris Newman, who is well known for his work mastering too many bands to list here. He also trades in some excellent John Fahey-influenced guitar. Newman's music was quite melodic; lots of arpeggios and somewhat raga-ish motions, bluesy bits, all played with considerable focus. No pointless meandering here.





Okay, I'll let you see what he actually looks like.



Not groundbreaking but highly listenable.

By comparison, Akiyama's sets ranged a little wider. He started on acoustic guitar, and his playing ranged outside the diatonic with far greater frequency. He was very quiet at the start - you could hear dishes clattering in the background and the hum of the fridge.



It's just not the Avant-Garde without Euro-pop videos ...



He went on to play a set of mantra electric boogie blues that sounded almost like a calliope playing.





The audience for his second set was smaller, but far more vocal.