Quasi
with Jeffrey Lewis
Marquis Theater, Denver • July 18, 2024
by Ian Koss
There is no better introduction to Quasi’s unique clavi-core than the introduction to the introduction to their 1998 album Featuring “Birds.” As drummer Janet Weiss tumbles out fills like boulders being carried along by a tsunami, Sam Coomes wrestles with his keyboard, right hand flopping on the upper keys like a stranded mudfish while his left crabs out a descending bass line. His knees rest against the bottom of the instrument, and his legs are pumping the whole thing up and down in an insistent rhythm, like some benthic behemoth struggling to break surface. With a dramatic flourish, the cacophony resolves into a glorious figure, and we begin to hear about the orbiting pods and underwater domes.
At least that is the plan, but as the band kicks off their set in Denver’s Marquis Theater, the microphones aren’t cooperating. Sam’s is dead, rendering the opening lines of the song mute, and Janet’s stand is drooping like something out of a comedy sketch, and everything comes to a crashing halt. Technical issues are quickly addressed as the crowd stands silent and rapt, and the show restarts to a lot of fanfare and cheer.
On this tour, Quasi is performing their third album in its entirety, all 16 songs, mostly in their recorded order (the highlighted “Birds,” which consists of field recordings, was briefly played to introduce the band). As we drove to the venue, four-plus hours away, I wasn’t sure who I was expecting to join me in this experience, but I was not surprised at who ended up being there: a small, highly-dedicated audience whose musical world was upended by this album on its release more than 25 years ago or some time since, ready to quietly mouth along every lyric.
The set starts out with Coomes and Weiss delivering their signature clavichord and drumset racket on “Our Happiness Is Guaranteed” and “I Never Want To See You Again,” before being joined on stage by Joanna Bolme (bassist with Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks) providing the liquid guitar line on “The Poisoned Well.” Switching to bass for the rest of the evening, she looked as giddily surprised to be there as the audience.
The great thing about hearing tribute to one of your favorite albums is also one of its downfalls — it’s hard to be surprised by the set list. Coomes kept things lively by occasionally switching to guitar, using a classic Telecaster Custom and bringing out a stunning green Burns Steer (with fresh strings!) on “Ape Self Prevails In Me Still” to great effect. Throughout, Weiss was content to dispense thunderbolts from her silver sparkle Ludwig set, the bobbing white frames of her glasses a visible indicator of her intensity, standing still only to deliver a devastating harmony into the microphone.
Featuring “Birds” was produced by the band, and is full of deft production touches and arrangements, and at first a three-piece seems understaffed to deliver the full range of the recorded material. This proves not to be an issue, as Coomes and Weiss are comfortably living in that space long-collaborating musicians inhabit, where musical performance becomes half creative endeavor and half exercise in mindreading. Important details, like the mellotron-like fluting towards the end of “It’s Hard To Turn Me On,” are reproduced with vocals, or the occasional triggered sample or recast instrument, and nothing feels sparse or left out.
Once Featuring “Birds” 45+ minutes are over, the band begins opening up to songs from across their extensive career. Highlights for yours truly include a rollicking “The Skeleton,” an unexpected and sorely welcome “It’s Raining,” and an all-out closing dose of chaos that rolled out in an implacable warble and crash.
New York raconteur and songsmith Jeffrey Lewis is on this tour, and we got to see him open on this night, and headlining the previous night in a small coffee shop back in Grand Junction. It’s worth noting that each night had a completely different performance, with not a song in common. Lewis mixes slice-of-life topics like women who might be a little too fancy because they buy $20 bottles of wine, or his plant-killing black thumb, with mixed-media performances centered around his comic art projected on a screen behind him. Sometimes these are illustrations to his lyrics, other times they retell a popular story like the best film ever made, Evil Dead 2. He promises to loop back around the US in the fall with a full band, and I recommend you keep an eye out for his name in your local calendar.
Quasi: https://www.quasiband.net/about • Jeffrey Lewis: https://thejeffreylewissite.com
