Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog Wowed PDX

Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog pulled into Portland Tuesday night with one of the best sets I have seen in awhile. Ribot, along with Ches Smith (drums/electronics), and Shahzad Ismaily (bass/percussion/moog), displayed an amalgamation of genre bending sounds.  The trio's songbook flowed seamlessly from free improv, to punk, to math rock, to free-jazz(ish) in front of a packed house at the renowned Mississippi Studios. 











Even in unfamiliar territory, familiarity was found within a punk-fusion variation of Paul Desmond's Take 5; offering glossy licks and cool jazz scales over a turbulent free-punk mash.  Ribot switched gears by singing on a handful of numbers. His singer-songwriter persona brought a certain cynicism into the equation which was evident in songs like "Masters of the Internet."

Ceramic Dog's performance kept the crowd looking around the corner to see what was coming. Altogether a bitches brew containing Smith's melodic, mathy drumming, Ismaily's noisy, improvised base lines, and at the helm Ribot's thrashy, amplified guitar chops.
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You can check out Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog's latest studio album, Your Turn, at Northern Spy a Records.