Originally posted at Feed Your Head on December 16, 2008:
Monday night (December 15, 2008), well rested, I headed out to The Echo to catch Gangi in their first local show in a while. Just back a week or so from their tour across the country with Rainbow Arabia, I was looking forward to seeing them before the end of the year. It was also great to catch up with Matt Gangi and Lyle Nesse after all these months…
As Gangi sets up, they populate the stage with diamond shaped hangings of multi-colored pastel patterns arranged to give the sense of visual balance. It compliments the aural balance they achieve in their music. I think they approach music as a geometrical or mathematical challenge to be solved. They nearly always do just that, adding what’s necessary and subtracting what’s superfluous. Just as the auditory dialog samples they use don’t clearly define the song, they merely suggest.
Their show Monday night reaffirmed why I’m so taken with this band. Matt and Lyle wowed an appreciative crowd with their magical concoctions. Beginning with “Commonplace Feathers” and then into “Subject Positions” the sound was great. But Matt’s mike went out at that point and I feared the worst, but the soundman sprang into action and the band resumed with little delay and a refreshing lack of frustration at the glitch. Nice professionals.
They also sang “Shift” and, of course, “Animals” and a new song which they said they’d only played about five times and never before an audience. It sounded just as polished as the rest of their numbers and it bodes well for their next album.
You feel that these guys enjoy composing just as much as performing. You could see it in the way they played a song only a few days old. I felt privileged just to hear it. Terrific concert.