First off, yay. I mean hell-yay, so happy to have the Firehouse back after a pandemic and some water damage that required lengthy remodeling. Apropos then to have home court guitar wunderkind Halvorson show her recent project Clone Decay. The trio was Mary on guitar and processed electronics, Kalia Vandever on trombone, and Weston Olencki on trombone and electronics. You heard right, two trombones and guitar offered a sonic palette for Halvosen to jump styles and time signatures. The first tune had Olencki squeaking and squiggling from the computer, they sounded like C3PO getting squashed by a semi. Vandever stuck with the trombone and when paired with another could give the proceedings a marching quality or a boozy quality, as if they were soundtracking an Andy Capp strip. Halvorson, as nerdy as ever, in her Sally Jesse Raphael frames, is an unlikely band leader. She nods and smiles her way through improv like some approving librarian. Her tone is varied, I heard flourishes of Larry Coryell, angular Marc Ribot lines, even some Paco Delucia flamenco, deliberate, not speedy. One passage had her treated guitar sounding like it was being played under water. Having “played” the trombone through my junior high years, I have a certain affinity for the sound. It is one of the few instruments where sliding in and out of notes is encouraged. Olencki did some odd puffing embouchure techniques and made use of a cup mute, while Vandever just blew. Halvorson is an in demand avant- axe wielder, just coming from a Big Ears stint where she supported John Zorn’s Cobra. Near capacity turnout was a welcome sight for the nicely remodeled concert space.
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