stu hamm, voodoo lounge/sf

just got back from stu hamm at the voodoo lounge in sf - absolutely fantastic! really small, intimate venue, got there early, stu was chilling with his players and a couple fans. walked up to him, said hi, he was very friendly/gracious - hung around and chatted w/ a few of us. pulled out my outbound liner and he signed it. for comedic effect, he wrote 'to anuj' in a comic-style dialog box coming out from his mouth on the cover w/ his usual year/peace-sign deal.

four piece band w/ him on bass, jim peterson/sax, andy marchetti/percussion and jacob aginsky/keys. he was playing his red sparkle urge bass thru a head into a peavey 4x8 or 4x10 cab. there was a black urge lying in back, presumably backup since he didn't use it thru the set.

i'm going to try and reconstruct what he played, but i was pretty much taking in the music rather than the specifics, but i'll write whatever i remember. he started with what he called a political/socialist song (since we were in the mission district :)) that he called my boss drives a mercedes while i get paid minimum wage. and boy, it worked! onto his abbey road/moonlight sonata solo, albeit all of both songs intertwined together (unlike the few minutes he does on his satch solo spot). onto a tango type piece (i forget the name) which turned into a duet w/ sax. absolutely fabulous music, and stellar playing. this is true for the entire set, a few flubbed hammer-ons notw/standing. he was also having some trouble w/ the amp - sounded like grounding issues - it buzzed every once in a while, pretty much at random. he got the rest of the band (keys/perc) on and they did a gershwin number - wow! (this is where memory fades) there was a jaco-tribute type tune he did which was all harmonics. he told the story of his girlfriend who went to college in ohio while he was at berklee, and how he wrote this song for her. she called him out cause she wanted to meet him, and he went out there only for her to tell him of her new boyfriend. so he named the tune ann you bitch i never want to see you again. beautiful song! :D this was either before or after his 'bass solo' - essentially his linus and lucy comedic routine, but with a lot of other ditties thrown in... and he wrapped it up pretty much the same way as on his satch solo spot. by now there were 'stuuuuuuuuuuus' from the audience. he did a couple more tunes off old records (nothing off outbound), cracked some great jokes, and then went on to what he called his post 9/11 piece, titled a new peace - very very soothing and beautiful. a joke about how he loved playing a gig without earplugs (low levels - it filled the room but nowhere near too loud - just perfect - conversation from 6 inches away were possible). ended with a 'goofy, happy' tune he wrote w/ his three year old daugher to whom happiness was always yellow, hence yellow happy. sure enough, brilliantly goofy, soulful with stu strumming his bass all the way through .. progressions crafted so well .. !

this was stu in his element, and i think all in all, despite having missed him w/ joe on this tour (nothing against matt, it's just that stu is stuuuuuuu!!), this is clearly where his heart is, and it came across. thanked him after, and asked him when to expect him again - he said he didn't know, and to keep searching the web.

yessir, i will, eagerly!

~A