Thu, Dec 13
RRIICCEE at the Music Gallery
Rating: NN
December 20, 2007

Vincent Gallo and Eric Erlandson slumped over their guitars, scraggly long hair veiling their faces, playing disjointed notes that rarely connected on a melody. This was not jamming, insisted Gallo. Don’t call it improvisation either. According to him, Rriiccee “compose spontaneously.” Fine. Whatever.

The concept is admirably daring: perform without pre-written music, put yourself on the line for your detractors (an issue Gallo addressed with equal amounts of humour and martyrdom). But their musicianship simply wasn’t strong enough to pull it off.

Gallo’s guitar playing was serviceable Hole’s Erlandson and Rebecca Casabian (keys) added texture on texture, while Nikolas Haas (Luke’s bro) pulled beats out of his ass with no particular finesse. The end product was at best something that might pass as the soundtrack for The Brown Bunny 2.

Let’s face facts: everyone in that church paid handsomely because of Gallo’s cult of celebrity. Buffalo 66 was 10 years ago, people. Move on.

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The original review is here.