William Tyler 10/23/13 BAR

A few weeks ago a guitar hero, ex Captain Beefheart and Yale alum Gary Lucas was in town to play some songs from his recent chinese pop record. Unfortunately, the show was at the Yale Center for Asian Studies at 4pm on a Tuesday (aren't all college students watching re-runs of The Rockford Files at this time?), so I missed it natch. So I was excited to see that William Tyler (Silver Jews, Lambchop) was coming to Bar for a free show. Tyler, solo, had immense hands. It looked as if he had tarantulas on his wrists as he moved from fret to fret. The first tune was a vibrato drenched loopfest called "Cadillac Desert" inspired by a book on US water policy in the southwest. Another tune was about his girlfriends parents house 60 miles south of Dublin. This music was ambient, and washed over you to impart some landscape. It sounds like I'm describing new age. This music was more challenging than new age, darker, better.