Artwork by Jake Pflum. Photos by Coen Rees, Julia Khoroshilov, and Lauren Khalfayan
Ty Segall deals primarily in extremes. The volume of his live show, the magnitude of releases in his catalog, hand-painted cassette-only experimental records, 13-minute noise tracks, his brief detour as a baby mask wearing frontman, and even a guitar-less studio album. A student of his work knows these extremes. So when he announced a five-night residency in New York with The Freedom Band to play his newest record First Taste in full coupled with a different selected record from his past, the news felt like less of a shock and more like a continuation of his rock and roll prophecy.
photo by Coen Rees
The week of shows appeared to be Ty’s manifesto to the human, in-person experience. Each of the five nights were loaded with improvisations, one-off jams, quick breaks into Black Sabbath and The Doors covers, standing-in-the-crowd guitar solos; true “you-had-to-be-there” moments. Not to mention: spectacular opening sets. Japenese noisy psych-freaks DMBQ, Tim Presley’s (four-guitarist) White Fence, and LAMPS, Monty Buckles’ LA-based proto punk band steeped in noise, which featured Ty’s wife Denée on bass.
photo by Coen Rees
The Freedom Band’s performances of First Taste placed musicianship and expert songwriting up front. Somewhat literally, as the band had a second drumkit placed at the front of the stage that Ty would move to in nearly every song to compliment and duel with full-time Freedom Band drummer Charles Mootheart. With most of the other members of the band were playing non-traditional and Eastern instruments such as the bouzouki, koto, omnichord, saxophone, a spectacle of a gig like this deserved five nights to fully grasp.
photo by Lauren Khalfayan
The second sets of back catalog full-album performances gave space to digest the musical rubix cube of First Taste and each night its own identity. The first two nights of Melted performances saw Ty digging way back into his 2008 breakout record through a decidedly more mature lens, extending album closer “Alone” for nearly 10 minutes in the vein of Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Goodbye Bread and Emotional Mugger saw Ty & The Freedom Band letting loose and playing deeper cuts from what were his personal favorite records, some songs had never been played live before. A crowd-surfing fan tossed a baby mask on stage, referencing Ty’s persona from his tour as “Ty Segall and The Muggers”, and the crowd was treated to a brief return of Sloppo. Ty’s amp caught fire mid-guitar solo on night three, prompting a “catch on fire” chant that returned each night thereafter.
photos by Coen Rees
Attending five consecutive nights of shows from a singular artist might seem irrational, but that’s exactly Ty’s approach as the modern era’s torch bearer of rock and roll. He even quietly released a 47-track, four LP box set of demos spanning ten years of work, complete with a painting of a half-pig (from the waist up) and half-human (from the waist down) reading a book titled Hot Dogs as its cover art. Extreme.
photo by Julia Khoroshilov
