Minnesotan Paul Metzger's free show at Cafe Nine last night was billed as "head banging, toe tapping, heart soaring banjo jams...escalating solo improvisations on modified banjos and guitars creating a unique live experience." When he started, I would have added head-scratching; by the time he ended it was jaw-dropping.
Metzger's instrument is a banjo with a twelve-string guitar head, apparently tuned like a sitar. Five guitar-like strings run down the fretboard with eighteen other strings in various places. Tuning pegs show up around the rim of the body.
The guy jammed. Sometimes in fits and starts, sometimes blazing fast runs, other times drawing a bow across the strings for sonorous melodies. What began as a curiousity quickly transfixed the audience. I moved around, going up close to try to figure out the instrument and moving to the back to enjoy the reverberations [and because the artist likes to play loud!] Words will ultimately fail to describe the sound--try the video link on Metzger's website: http://www.paulmetzger.net/ or his myspace page: http://www.paulmetzger.net/
I liked sound man Warren's comment after the show about his whole-tone playing near the beginning of his set: "It was not at all ambiguous."
