Tortoise TNT @ 21 [full performance]

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

Chicago’s finest and their finest work imho - all live and sequenced as per the release with some minor voicing tweaks - what. a. treat.

I am stunned that this is 21 years on now, it’s still so musically fresh and fresh in my mind and it’s one of those handful of desert island discs for me - always one of the first i load onto a new phone etc - obviously along with Millions Now Living’ but i think whilst that was its predecessor this is richer in every regard and better realised - so influential for me back then

Some of this music feels like it’s been ripped straight out of my soul, it just resonates so much, quite something for instrumental music

Anyway - a visual treat for those familiar and those new to it - a sublime poly-rhythmic/metric masterpiece - it needs time, try it when you have time though, lots of space and dynamics - plus very little electronics folks, they drop in the most difficult to replicate segment from the album on a vinyl … i love these guys and all their other work :heart:

From YouTube : Tortoise perform all of their iconic 1998 album TNT live at the Pitchfork and The Art Institute of Chicago’s Midwinter 2019 for its 21st anniversary.

  1. TNT 00:54
  2. Swung From the Gutters 8:18
  3. Ten-Day Interval 16:04
  4. I Set My Face To The Hillside 20:07
  5. The Equator 26:20
  6. A Simple Way To Go Faster Than Light That Does Not Work 30:40
  7. The Suspension Bridge At Iguazu Falls 34:14
  8. Four-Day Interval 39:33
  9. In Sarah, Mencken, Christ And Beethoven There Were Women And Men 43:40
  10. Almost Always Is Nearly Enough 50:48
  11. Jetty 53:29
  12. Everglade 59:23
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Digitakt: Post-Rock meets Jazz-Fusion
#2

TNT is in Top 10 my favourite albums of all time. I’ve listened to it for like 100000 times :wink:

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#3

ditto - that’s how it’s so easy for me to detect the subtle voicing/phrasing changes and a few minor errors (naming no names, cough, McCombs ; )

it’s reflective music for all seasons and almost all moods and so dense with nutrients, you can’t exhaust it by repeated playing

sadly inimitable unless part of a large acoustic collective

#4

Oh i’ve seen them live twice, 1997 and 1998

Millions Now Living Will Never Die

and TNT

simply mind blowing … In a more LOFI spirit, check David pajo under the name PAPA M - LIVE FROM A SHARK CAGE … ( Pajo was in Tortoise too )

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#5

awesome! thanks for sharing! I actually just realized earlier this week how much I adore this record. it’s always been between that and Standards for me; likely because Standards was my first Tortoise record, but also because of the deep electronic manipulation going on there.

I’ve seen them a few times, and it was always amazing. would love to again. favorite time was when my wife and I were in Chicago and, totally randomly, they happened to be doing a mid-day show, for free, outside at Pritzker pavilion (i.e. Milllennium park, the outside theatre right next to “the bean”). this was in 2008, I think…? sat in the first couple rows. sounded incredible and they were ON. awesome memory.

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#6

I was scouring releases for almost all off-shoots and predecessors and city-mates - chicago was buzzing then - i love that release - Arundel is one of the best single tracks on any record, sublime - but i absolutely adore his follow up ‘Whatever, Mortal’ despite it being more traditional, the song-writing on that is incredible, plus it has the texture of some of this, Arundel, could be on that album - all wonderful guitar work though

–

I think i saw them live around then, certainly ahead of TNT and pre Parker, and many more times after that, they were shockingly bad at their own All Tomorrow’s Party iirc a few years later, but The Sea and Cake were on fire, thankfully every other time i caught them they were superb - they played Gamera at the first gig i caught them at, the double drummer thing had me spellbound, it was amazing live

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#7

super jealous - chicago’s also one of those cities i wish i’d visited, a huge fan of many labels there too - i love that Kapoor sculpture, i worked with a guy whose company was tendered to build that out of random coincidence fwiw, (they didn’t get it) we worked on something altogether non-artistic though also in part made of steel

#8

Totally understand your enthusiasm for these things and what came out of chicago back then - Also some of my favourite music.
I became a massive fan of Dave Pajo and also saw him performing in Tortoise at a gig in Bristol on the Thekla …way back… (1996?) They all completely blew my mind!! Watching John McEntire playing drums is awesome.
Also saw Pajo later performing Live from a Shark Cage and older Aerial M tunes like Wedding Song No.3, which I still adore to this day. The first Aerial M album is beautiful.
Oh and Chicago is a really wonderful city - you must go!!

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#9

Hell yeah ! I played the empty bottle in 2006, was cracked up and then the promotor took us out, best night ever !

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#10

sure love Tortoise. Thanks for the vid.
Have seen once live in europe.
long times ago, feel like another life!
Great gig! Despite I owned and cherish
all the albums I had no clues how much
they could perform live. Was my mind
sufficiently blown? Yes Fam!

Thanks for bring this back to my mind,
has been at least 3 or 4 years since I
have blasted out Tortoise. Good Times.

Totally different music but often I recommend
in same sentence is Minotaur Shock
It’s a solo act. Particularly recommend “Maritime” album

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#12

Thanks :thup: - downloading for a listen - I think when they toured this at the Glasgow Art School they were supported by Godspeed You Black Emperor or Sigur Ros iirc - i’ll have the ticket somewhere but if anyone knows of a reliable historical concert tracker please share the link :wink:

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#13

Loved the early M. Tons of incredible Tortoise-connected bands for sure, but I look at Tortoise and M as Slint-related because that was my frame of reference. Of those, I’d argue the For Carnation is the most timeless. First EP may have been how Dave connected with the Tortoise dudes. Or maybe he brought them to Brian to help him out as a backing band?

Early M had a lot of important locals helping and the EPs with the Furnish/Bailey/Marrett backing band are my favs. Technically, even I was a member briefly, but that’s sort of a long story/joke so that Dave could get out of playing a show and let my band open for Smog, which was thrilling as a 19 year old trying to figure out how to do this sort of stuff ‘for real’.

Proud Louisville musician signing off :slight_smile:

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#14

quality! really wished I had seen them in the 90s…love the albums but I feel like they are best experienced live.

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#15

well Pajo was in the three bands, so yes they are related :slight_smile:

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#16

Yep, it’s just about what is the core band that everything else spreads out from, which is totally subjective of course. A lot of people take it back even before Slint to Squirrel Bait/Solution Unknown …

#17

What a great opportunity … The musician’s musician, love love love unloveable Bill - love his work in its own right, but when he hooked up with J O’R and JM et al back in the day it was a double treat for sure - i think this is why i found the output from Chicago/labels so rewarding, it was just so rich with talent - i’m still reliant on Wilco to get me through the day sometimes, Tweedy and Callahan are huge for me, it was nice to hear recently that Tweedy’s youngest was a Bill fan

I have the eponymous release, not one I played a lot, i wasn’t sure i was aware it featured Pajo, as good enough a reason to recheck the CD thanks

Looking backwards from the time i got hooked has generally been less successful for me, but I’m absolutely hooked on the Minutemen, which McCombs was apparently a super-fan of, different vibe from an earlier era, but it makes me think more about what McCombs was doing in Tortoise, he’s a huge part of what i love about them

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#18

i take them all in my basket and bring it back home :wink:

#19

I have no idea what that means, but I’ll assume that means you like them all. I’m glad we are, presumably, on the same page :slight_smile:

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#20

another big regret God Speed You Black Emperor…however, managed to see Sigur Ros in 2004-5 (-ish)…

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#21

Dave didn’t play on the s/t full length, but did on the other two releases. All are gold in their own way. Some other Tortoise dudes are on the first EP though in addition to Pajo, which is why it felt more Tortoise related. Musically, not so much though. But really, think about Tar Babies, Eleventh Dream Day, Poster Children, Bastro, My Dad is Dead…that’s what is great about Tortoise: those dudes have talent and can explore it in a lot of different paradigms and pull it off.

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