Live Review, Photos, and Videos: The Books, Todd Reynolds (4-20-07) Variety Playhouse
Review by sleo
Photos by BiggieC
Video by bobloblaw79
Friday night The Books tour stopped in Atlanta promoting the new tour/online only Play All DVD. The show started out with Todd Reynolds, a masterful violinist with effects pedals and a bass drum. Todd also used a large screen to display many graphics that were developed by a variety of artists. Not only could Todd play a mean violin with twists and turns throughout his elaborate, overlapping melodies, but his use of the pedals and bass drum also added an intriguing element of intensity to his visual effects. My favorite visualization shown by Todd was a portrayal of riding on the British monorail. The artist took footage from the front and back of the train at the same time and displayed each perspective side by side. The journey down the rail was traveled at the same rate of Todd’s violin bow, and quickly became mesmerizing to watch. Todd had also cleverly designed his musical piece around his artist friend’s footage to coincide with the changing directions, speeds, and overlaps of the different angles from which the artist filmed his journey on the rail.
Then The Books took the stage and totally blew me away. It’s not often enough that I get to go to a show that has so much going on in their music and on stage that I can’t even tear my eyes away. The duo also utilized the large screen on stage with several videos that went along perfectly with every song. They showed a wide variety of footage, from creations of simplistic and distorted graphics of the alphabet to old family videos. Nick consistently held the mellow tone of their music with his acoustic guitar, while Paul contributed dramatic melodies on his skeletal cello. Throughout all of their songs, several different samples of voices and music filled in over the acoustic sound of their instruments from what seems like quite an extensive library of sounds. There was not a large turnout for the show, yet the crowd that was there was thoroughly entertained as the sounds of their enthusiasm throughout the entire performance was thunderous. It was additionally nice to be able to chillax and see everything going on with such a friendly and upbeat crowd. Todd Reynolds came out to join the duo for a few of their songs, which made for a more complex and compelling performance. They even did a phenomenal cover of a Nick Drake song from his album Five Leaves Left (which they admitted to having done last year at their performance at the EARL). I had a great time at the show and really can’t wait to see what else these guys can come up with.
(Click for larger photos)
“Cello Song” (Nick Drake cover)
Note: The video is very dark but the sound quality is listenable)
- Posted by Clint Miller on April 23, 2007 at 12:05 pm
