Mike Gordon made the fourth stop on his 2020 winter tour at Newport Music Hall in Columbus, OH Monday night, and certainly made it worth the chilly trek for everyone who came out at the start of the work week.
Despite the frigid temperature and day of the week, Gordon still drew a fairly large crowd at the 1,700-capacity venue. Many people decided to hang back in the atrium area near the bar and pizza counter for the first set, allowing for maximum dancing space for those who decided to get up close and personal with the Phish bassist. As the lights went down and Gordon came out with his band—consisting of guitarist Scott Murawski (Max Creek), keyboardist Robert Walter (20th Congress, The Greyboy Allstars), drummer John Kimock, and auxiliary percussionist/multi-instrumentalist Craig Myers (Barika—the first thing Gordon did was shush the crowd as they offered the band thunderous applause when they took the stage.
The show kicked off with “Pendulum” from Gordon’s 2017 album, OGOGO, and the ensuing jam had an exploratory feel as the band got acclimated to the room. The improvisation took on an air of reaching one’s arms out to feel the space between the walls before eventually coming back around to the main riff. Next came a rendition of Max Creek‘s “Cruel World” as Murawski took vocals for the first time of the evening. Walter took the improvisational reins here on a traditional electric piano before giving way to a solo from Murawski, who then ceded leadership to the percussion section. Meanwhile, during all of this baton passing, Gordon patiently held down the low end.
After the second song, the scarf came off as Gordon seemed to finally settle into the room for the evening. As he bantered with the audience, “This is a new K-pop song we wrote. We wrote it in Kenya, jacked up on Ketamine.” After that, they launched into their newly debuted “K-pop ballad”, “Borrowing Rain”.
One peculiar thing about the number was that it didn’t feature any bass from Gordon through its entire first verse, giving him the opportunity to focus solely on hitting the high vocal notes demanded by the song. “Borrowing Rain” was noteworthy in the set for a variety of reasons, as it also heard Robert Walter move away from the more traditional piano sounds he had been using so far and toward more synthesized effects. This energy rolled right into the next song, a cover of Jon Cleary‘s “Got To Be More Careful”, which featured a bouncy, reggae beat accented with heavy organ lines from Walter and wah-pedal interplay from Murawski.
Next came Gordon classic “Andelman’s Yard” from 2008’s The Green Sparrow. This song ushered in one of the evenings biggest highlights when Myers busted out the MIDI n’goni harp that Gordon had unveiled on social media before embarking on winter tour. Unfortunately, it proved to be the only appearance of the night from the electronic hybrid instrument, but that just made the interplay it shared with the keys for those couple of minutes all the more special.
A bouncy yet brief “Tropical Rocket” followed, marking the first time all night that Gordon’s bass playing was pushed to the forefront. The first set then closed out with “Crazy Sometimes”, which saw Gordon and Murawski flip on the LED lights on their guitars and dive into an effects-heavy improvisational segment that took the band into setbreak.
The second set began with a gentle flurry of instrumentation that eventually snowballed into a blizzard before falling into “Victim 3D”. It was immediately apparent that Gordon’s bass had become significantly louder since the first set, evening out his sound with the rest of the band.
Next came the group’s second-ever cover of Coldplay‘s “All I Can Think About Is You”, which was originally debuted two days earlier at Danforth Music Hall in Toronto, ON. Gordon’s own “Whirlwind” followed, once again featuring extended use of phasers and effects from Walter, who led the band into a spacey jam that gave off the feeling of transcending form while actually staying rigid to it.
Next came a run through “Dig Further Down” featuring more thrilling interplay between Walter and Murawski. Even as each member passed the torch of the jam to another, they continued to listen dutifully to the other musicians onstage. Nobody went wild with extensive solos that left the rest of the band as an afterthought.
As Gordon thanked the crowd for coming out on a Monday night, he mused, “This is a song Scott and I wrote while snorting crystal geyser. If you’ve never snorted water, I’d really recommend it” before launching into “Sughn Never Sets”. The song’s driving, hand drum-accented beat was somewhat reminiscent of Talking Heads‘ “Crosseyed And Painless”—a telling vibe, as the show moved forward into a cover of “Cities”. The band avoided any Phish comparison by playing the song at the upbeat tempo at which it was originally recorded while Murawski offered his best David Byrne impression.
Mike Gordon – “Cities” [Talking Heads cover] – Newport Music Hall – Columbus, OH – 1/20/20
[Video: Jordo_Vids]
The set closed out with “Go Away”, which saw more effects-heavy synth and keys give way to a pulsating drum beat, before all of the instruments wound down into deconstruction, until eventually building back up into a crescendo to end the second set.
As the band went away for the encore break and the stage lights came back up, it became apparent that as much as one-quarter of the attendees had already left, no doubt wary of the long day of work that awaited them on Tuesday morning. Gordon and his band returned to the stage and made it up to those who had stuck around for the encore with Aerosmith anthem “Sweet Emotion”, the monster riff from Gordon and Murawski bouncing off the walls through the thinned-out crowd. Gordon further rewarded the fans who stuck it out by inviting them to come say hey to him over at the merch table and get an autograph after the show.
Mike Gordon – “Sweet Emotion” [Aerosmith cover] – Newport Music Hall – Columbus, OH – 1/20/20
[Video: Jordo_Vids]
Mike Gordon and his band now have their first day off since starting their tour on January 17th. The tour will resume on January 22nd at Chicago’s Thalia Hall. Tickets and a full list of dates are available on Gordon’s website.
Scroll down to check out a gallery of images from Mike Gordon at the Newport Music Hall in Columbus, OH, January 20th courtesy of photographer Andy Wihelm.
Setlist: Mike Gordon | Newport Music Hall | Columbus, OH | 1/20/20
Set One: Pendulum, Cruel World (Max Creek cover), Borrow, Got To Be More Careful (Jon Cleary cover), Andelman’s Yard, Tropical Rocket, Crazy Sometimes
Set Two: Victim 3D, All I Can Think About Is You (Coldplay cover), Whirlwind, Dig Further Down, Sughn Never Sets, Cities (Talking Heads cover), Go Away
Encore: Sweet Emotion (Aerosmith)
