Originally posted to rec.music.bluenote, 20 Sep 1993 02:19:10 -0400.
I should have taken notes so I could post the setlists... Anyway, both sets Saturday were great. They had just gotten together that day an arrangement of a DNA tune (I think it was called "Lying on the sofa of life") which they did both times. It was a weird and difficult (to play) tune. Nothing technically challenging but just hard to coordinate. They did a lot of soundtrack covers over the eight sets. One new one was "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer". It was pretty scary.
The last set was for requests. They did a free improv tune with the whole band in the first set, so that took care one of my requests. The other I guess I'll never hear Naked City play -- "Mission: Impossible". Other tunes I would have loved to hear Zorn arrange and Naked City play include "Caravan", "Confirmation", Argento/Goblins soundtracks... I suppose I'll just have to form my own band at some point that can do this shit now that Naked City's gone... :) Anyway, I went for the seat leaning against the monitor again, at Frith and Frisell's feet. They opened with Messiaen's "Etude for the End of Time". I think they did Brian Wilson's "Pet Sounds". And a tune called "Asylum" dedicated to Charles Mingus, which is pretty cool (a fast complicated jazzy tune). I think it was on "Inside Straight" that they really opened it up for extended soloing. Frisell went on for a while and the energy level was consistently up there. Frith held on to the bassline for a long time again, but eventually he started doing something else, and Baron started crashing around instead of playing time. I guess they were all putting some amount of effort and concentration into having a good time and playing well for their last set ever. This was probably the best set except for the second one Thursday (IMHO). They did "Chinatown", "Erotico" (Morriconne, it's on "The Big Gundown" -- they did it once before Saturday too). When it was time, Zorn made the usual gesture for Eye to come out. He sez "It's time to bring out Mr. Yamatsuka Eye!" The people off stage look confused and shake their heads. Eye is not there. Where is he? Zorn sez "He's upstairs sleeping like he always is. He's either screaming or sleeping!" Zorn mentioned that Eye is moving to NYC in January. Yikes. Maybe he'll do a vocal workshop at the New School... :) Anyway they did a bunch of the Torture Garden style tunes ("Slan", "Pigfucker", "Speedfreaks", "Hammerhead", "Jazz Snob Eat Shit" -- which Zorn also called "Naked City Snob Eat Shit" :) -- and others I don't remember).
At one point Zorn called "Igneous Ejaculation" (I think; it was one of those short intricate hardcore tunes anyway). Baron said "OK, but let's do it really fast." Zorn sez "Alright, Joey, count it off!" Baron sez "No, you count it off!" So Zorn counts it off, really fast. And the whole band breaks into a slow and rather hideously reharmonized version of "Happy Birthday" (complete with some screaming from Eye). Poor Zorn... Anyway, after that they played the tune -- really fast. :)
A chart they had just gotten together that day was "Lying on the sofa of life" I think it was called. Apparently it had been in the book for a while but they had never gotten around to it. It's a DNA cover (the tune is on the Avant DNA album, BTW). A weird tune, fairly difficult to play.
Some other interesting tunes not on the albums that they played at some point during this "engagement"... "The Vault": starts with Frisell doing some fairly ominous distorted arpeggios. It's an ominous tune. "American Psycho": lots of sections of different character and style, with large blocks of silence in between. They did a cover of another John Barry soundtrack which I can't remember. "Hawaii Five-O" (they've done that one a lot). "Night Surfing". "The Yodel" (another John Patton tune). "Strange Cargo". An afro-pop tune I can't remember the name of but it's a very nice tune -- I especially like the way the melody kind of floats over the groove. {3/94: "The Vault" and "American Psycho" are now available on _Radio_ of course. Possibly "Night Surfing" is really "Sunset Surfer" from _Radio_, and it is also possible that I confused the Hawaii-Five-O theme with "Tekmani Teepee"...}
The first time I ever saw Naked City was at Slim's in San Francisco. They blew me away; as soon as they kicked us out from the first set I went right back in line to get in for the second set. I had been listening to their first album a lot ("Torture Garden" hadn't appeared yet) but hearing it live was a whole different story. One of the tunes they did was a beautiful rendition of "You Only Live Twice" (from the James Bond film of the same name, which Zorn said was his favorite Bond film "for obvious reasons" -- maybe cuz it's set in Japan. for one reason...). I never heard them play it after that. I had told my brother about it (he's a big Bond fan). He was the first person to write down a request on the sheet the first night, and "You Only Live Twice" was his request. He was worried he would never get to hear them do it (it's not even on any of the tapes we've managed to come across). It was the last song of the set. Frisell's phrasing and tone really work beautifully on that tune. (After the gig we were sitting around downstairs. Zorn was outside so my brother went out to say hi to him, and thanked him for playing "You Only Live Twice". Zorn said it was a pleasure and that he hoped he dug it.) They did two tunes as encores. "A Shot in the Dark", a fairly intense version of it, with high-energy chaos and fragmentation before they start to groove (IMHO the transformation didn't work as well as it could but it was still good). And then "The Bad and the Beautiful", from the film of the same name, a short and mellow rendition. I thought "Leng T'che" would have made the perfect encore... :) But perhaps "The Bad and the Beautiful" is appropriate; Naked City was both.
-Ed
PS The word is that the Knitting Factory will be releasing a CD of stuff from Zorn month, an entire CD of Painkiller, and maybe an entire CD of Naked City. I hope they do.