Bill Orcutt played with JPC & The Battery at the Pearl
A good old next-day piece from my encounter with a guitar legend last night
It was the show so nice, they changed the venue twice: Infidels Jazz originally booked American improvising guitarist Bill Orcutt at Hero's Welcome on August 7th for his first Vancouver show in three decades. Then the show moved about a week or two after announcement to the Kingsway Club, a bigger space. Then, late last month, it moved to the Pearl because the Kings dropped out of the picture altogether.
Orcutt will return to town merely one month from now, as part of a trio with former Comets On Fire member Ethan Miller and former Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, on September 9 at the Rickshaw (also moved from the Kingsway Club) with support from Infidels band KneeJerk. Their upcoming album, Orcutt Shelley Miller, drops on September 5.
I wrote to you about the last two times I went to the Pearl, both for Infidels shows in 2024. At one, I happened to hear frequent Orcutt collaborator Chris Corsano on drums, with Aram Bajakian rounding out the improv duo, opening for Mike WT Allen's Space Elevator. The other? It's coming again soon, but to the Hollywood...
Anyway, I went back to Granville Street last night to hear Orcutt, living up to the stereotype of "guitar people" who buy single tickets to skronky shows because their spouses have other plans. The youths were at McDonald's and Popeye's refueling from clubbing when I got out, but lucky me, I'd been in a club full of guitar nerds sat down in chairs.
