Cool Drummings - Steve Reich and Friends @ McMillan Theatre

On Sunday night, I saw one of those concerts I thought I'd never see. In the early 90's, I had a few close calls with the Orb -- rumoured shows, a cancelled show, a tour stop in Montreal but not in Toronto (and I wasn't able to make the road trip to attend it) -- but I knew I'd see them eventually. Being conscious of that didn't erase the frustration of having to wait years to see them, but I knew that it would happen someday.

On the other hand, I never thought I'd see Steve Reich. That was a fantasy. That was the type of concert that I knew was happening somewhere in the world, but I couldn't envision it happening in the part of the world that I inhabit.

These weren't unfounded paranoias -- Steve Reich hadn't been to Toronto in twenty years. But last week, he visited the University of Toronto Faculty of Music as a Visitor in Composition, and the gala concert featured a trio of Reich pieces, "Music For Pieces of Wood", "You Are (Variations)", and "Drumming".

Members of percussion ensemble NEXUS have been playing with Steve Reich and Musicians for literally decades, and the ease with which they play are clearly the result of years of familiarity with the countless nuances of these semi-improvised pieces. They are absolutely astonishing -- them old dudes have SKILLS. They possess a sick sense of rhythm, and an uncanny ability to keep metronomic tempos just as easily as they can phase them out from each other and lock them back into place completely at will.

The flimsiness of a CD recording of "Music For Pieces of Wood" is lost in a live setting. All music is best heard live, but with percussion-based music in particular, the high harmonics inherent to the instruments are largely lost on a recording (not to mention the concert hall reverb that requires being there in person to experience). Each strike of the wood drills loud, ringing tones into one's ears with pristine clarity. The hypnotic "You Are (Variations)" is instantly recognizable as Reich, with four pianos driving the piece forward in a semi-Spectorian type of spectacle.

Lasting 57 minutes on this night, "Drumming" is the clear highlight. As the sound made by nine marimba players filled the hall, and the spider web of eighteen mallets billows above their instruments, the overall effect seems to be one of sustained tones despite the underlying rhythmic complexity. These soft, near-melancholy drones wouldn't be out of place in the more ambient portions of Bowery Electric's "Beat", or perhaps a Stars of the Lid album.