John Pointer, 9 Muses Pub, Portland, Oregon, USA (Sunday December 16, 2007)
I was so excited last December when I caught John Pointer's live show at 9 Muses Pub on Belmont Street in Portland, Oregon, that I ran the few blocks home and immediately began writing a review. It wasn't the first time I'd seen Pointer perform, but it was the best. His live shows are of consistently high caliber, but each one I see is more thrilling than the last. Is the man just getting better and better, or do I simply forget each time how good he is, and grow increasingly appreciative of his performances?
Like any city worth its salt and other minerals, Portland boasts a number of off-the-beaten-path pubs, coffeehouses, bars and other venues where a good live musical show can be seen with little fuss or fanfare. I had the great good fortune to catch the Austin-based Pointer live at 9 Muses the first time, though I missed his follow-up gig at the same place just a few weeks ago. Pointer belongs to a class of musicians who can record good music, but can perform amazing music. From John Pointer's Web site: "He started piano lessons at age five, cello at six, and percussion at nine. He taught himself guitar at eleven and picked up bass at fourteen." It's difficult to prepare someone for an eight-piece band consisting of just one man. His lungs are an instrument. His lips are another. His feet, his cheeks, his chest, his voice, and even, yes, his guitar -- all separate instruments.
As with most good bands, these individual instruments work together. The point is to produce something from strumming and singing (and stomping and breathing and thumping and humming and blowing) which creates a fuller -- or at least more fully realized -- sound when the different elements work together than they would alone. But also like most good bands, no recording could completely capture the intensity of the live experience. Pointer's an excellent musician, even through the distance of a recording. But listening to his recorded music is so much more exciting when you've seen the man play, and understand that all those seemingly disparate elements and sounds come from a single human performer, often simultaneously.
Pointer achieved some national notoriety when his (pretty amazing, actually) Chili's Baby Back Ribs commercial hit the airwaves a few years ago (if you missed it you can view it from his Web site). He turned down an offer from Cirque du Soleil to join their 2007 production in order to produce his debut solo album, Schizophonic.
It's been a few months since I began this review, and my enthusiasm for Pointer's December performance hasn't waned. I'm listening to Schizophonic at this very moment, which can be purchased directly from Pointer himself at his one-man gigs (tour schedules on his MySpace page) or from the online digital store, SnoCap (purchase links and free samples of Pointer's songs on his Web site). The CD is excellent. It's excellent, but it's not a live John Pointer Show. Those are amazing.
Highly, highly recommended.
Download an mp3 of "The Flame" off Schizophonic by clicking here!
