A couple of things about the Luggage Store Gallery that musicians will always have to contend with: they'll never know which part of the building they'll be playing in, and, further, what type of art may or may not be playing among or even behind. Case in point: in order for Cartoon Justice to set up for our 9/20/18 gig there, Mika had to position himself behind a sculpture that, combined with its plinth, effectively blocked his sight line toward the rest of the band. Kind of a bummer, but unpredictability is pretty much guaranteed there. One has to learn to roll with it! Aside from that glitch, things went pretty well for us. We played a determined 38 plus or minus minute set, consisting of three sketches that had been rehearsed: one that started really sparse, lead by Mika's Mac-generated algorithms, another based very loosely on our Spirit Aligned Truth piece, and a last one inspired by Monk's classic Well You Needn't. The set had, for me, a really oozy rhythmic feel, with our quintet interacting really nicely. Lenny Gonzalez guested again on electric cello, and added cool weirdness with his pedaled-up axe. Eli and I mixed things up really well, I felt, and Kersti and Mika freaked out above it all. I'm never sure how people will respond to Cartoon Justice, but there were some folks in attendance, and they seemed to enjoy our set. For me, it was a satisfying Electro-Acoustic blend, and showed evident strides made as a unit. I felt like we played as a tight band, and I had a ton of fun within the music. Music can give such an uplifting, freeing feeling, and that was definitely my experience at the Luggage Store. This year has been good for Cartoon Justice, and this gig felt like a true reflection of that.
Below: Cartoon Justice set up around a sculpture; big red drum set
Above: Cartoon Justice at the end of a fun evening. Lenny did double duty, playing with How Are You Doing? after our set.
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