Next post today is my review of Artis.

In a word: WOW! If you have a chance to see him perform, I would recommend it. I arrived a little late to Centennial Square, and he had already started. He is a master of the spoons. He was jumping, dancing, crouching, switching between “instruments”, and in general just going off. The sounds from his instruments was complex, rythmic, and just plain beautiful. Truly a treat.

Besides playing the spoons, he also recited some poetry he had written, entertained with songs, played with string figures (including this incredbile series of figures that accompanied a story).

He also played the electric spoons. He said that ever since he started playing spoons, he wanted to play the electric spoons, so he invented how. Don’t ask me how it works. I saw that his spoons had one wrie coming from each, and these went into a yellow control box. He sat on a stool, and with some background effects already going, he began to play. He worked a couple of pedals while whe was strumming along, and got some pretty intense sounds going. Very amazing!

He also played along with a Satriani song.

In all I really enjoyed his performance. His poetry, and songs are very in your face, and dealt with current topics (one being the war in Iraq, but also violence in general). He is a very interesting and unique individual and is not afraid to speak his views. It would be a treat to sit and have coffee with him and just chat.

There aren’t many professional spoon players any more.

I apologize for my pictures. I tried my best with everything I know about photography, but the stage was a pain to shoot. I was sitting in sun, Artis was in shade, but behind him was a sunny backdrop. These were all I could salvage.