Our friends took us up to Burlington last night to see Zoe Keating at Higher Ground. They had introduced us to her at the beginning of the year so when they asked if we’d like to join them to see her live, we jumped.
Yeah, so Zoe is a classically trained cellist who suffered from severe stage fright whenever she had to play classical music in front of an audience. In response, I think she began improvising instead and eventually landed on this style of looping via a foot pedal and a Mac running several concurrent applications. In the photo above you can see she’s got the foot pedal on her right with 10 numbered buttons and an 11th function cluster button, and all that feeds into the laptop on her left. How it all works technically is a complete mystery to me. She seemed to be able to not only record loops and bring them in and out selectively, but also assign effects. I wasn’t able to see her right foot from where I was sitting unfortunately, but I did run up at the end to see the rig.
She really didn’t interact much with the laptop, and in a video interview I’ve watched it sounds like she’d prefer not to interact with it at all if possible. It was cute the way the technology dictated the performance a little bit last night. One of her songs ended abruptly when it looked like she flubbed a pedal maybe. It was a piece called Across the Street, which she hasn’t yet recorded. I think it was probably my favorite thing she played all night and I only wish we could have heard more. It was lighter and brighter than a lot of the stuff she plays, and it had some really nice ‘swooping’ sounds.
Another time she ‘lost’ two loops she wanted to integrate back into the song, so she bent over to search for them on the screen while the other loops continued to play.
And finally, one of the apps crashed before her final song. I’m not sure if she was able to restore it but she played either way and it was wonderful. I mention it only because it’s interesting, and honestly I probably enjoyed the show more because of it. I felt like we were having something real and spontaneous rather than a canned experience, although I am getting the impression the songs we heard are in heavy rotation looking at the videos online. 🙂
Her work with the bow was captivating. It was so direct and precise, and at times it looked weightless in her hands and then other times she was really going at it. I can’t tell you where she ranks among cellists, but the combination of everything was so seamless and impressive. She is incredibly talented and gifted.
Her opener was a local girl who also incorporated looping into her act. It was enjoyable and great but the difference between someone who’s been playing an instrument for 30 years with laser guided focus and someone who dabbles was striking. Like watching two different species. I’m always awestruck and intimidated by people like Zoe – someone who has found their calling in life and are just mastering the shit out of it. I take full responsibility for it, she seems sweet, but after the show we were up at the stage and I was taking the photo of her gear when Susan and Amy came up to join me and we got talking and suddenly Zoe popped up next to us. Susan asked her to sign her poster and they were bantering pleasantly about train travel and I was desperately trying to detach my left arm to bid a stealthy retreat.
It’s been a long time since I saw a live musician I was truly excited about. I wish I had been bold enough to take some video but it was a small space and I didn’t want to draw attention to myself or detract from my own experience either. So as she said herself, I will take away the memory and emotion of the thing rather than a record, which is what she focuses on creatively.