I first became aware of Primitive Air’s Drew Piraino sometime in 2016. He had recently moved to the same weird, obscure, little suburb of Kingston, NY that I had been living in for the past ten or so years. This “town” is so small you cannot get mail delivered to your house. Everything must be picked up from the post office, which is a converted porch attached to someone’s home. Seriously. One day I went to pick up some records I had been waiting for and while the post lady gathered them up, I noticed another stack off to the side. I asked about them and she said, “Yeah, some other guy gets lots of records too.” Inevitably, we became friends.
I remember when the original Primitive Air tape was released on Beyond Beyond is Beyond (RIP). I popped into the bar where he was working to talk about it. I am fairly sure my eloquent assessment was “It sounds like German commune music in a good way.” He hugged me and bought me a round. He was good enough to see through my clumsy review and realize I was holding it to a very grand standard. These songs do not aim for hooks or anything that might be misconstrued as “pop sensibilities.” They exist to get the listener outside of their head or, maybe, much deeper inside their head.
For this performance, Drew (bass and guitar) was joined by Jeff Mercel on drums, Jared Ashdown and Alex Kulick on guitars. The short but very sweet set is comprised of one tune from that 2018 BBiB tape and one new composition. Both tunes were great, but it was a joy to hear “Samadhi” stretched out with some impressive guitar interplay between Jarrod and Alex.
Primitive Air was the first band I ever record at Tubby’s way back in 2019. I’ve seen and recorded a lot of music in that room since so it was a pleasure to close out this year right where I started, in my spot in the back by the soundboard. It was doubly sweet as this was the first show I saw since the building was purchased by the employees. Tubby’s is now truly an independent venue. Enjoying interesting music in a supportive environment is the name of the game, and I hope we all get to keep playing for years to come.
Download and stream from the Live Music Archive!
Primitive Air
2023-12-08
Tubby’s
Kingston, NY
Source: MBHO440 > SD MixPre 3 > SD (24/48) > Adobe Audition/Izotope 9 > Audacity FLAC (lvl 8) > Mp3Tag
Recorded and produced by Kliked
Thanks to Tubby’s FOH engineer Brian for the mix!
- Resurrection at Eleusis
- Samadhi
Support this excellent artist!
https://primitiveair.bandcamp.com/album/creation-hymn
Support the venues bringing you interesting music!
https://www.tubbyskingston.com/music-calendar
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