For the third time this year, the One Stop at Asheville Music Hall exploded with the sounds of Mono Means One. The band features John Ferrara of Consider the Source whose legendary Bass Guitar tapping, slapping, and just plain smoking is enough on its own merit to satisfy his fans.
After working with Seth Moutal and two beautifully crafted solo albums; he began a project called Mono Means One. Initially it comprised his solo work and an additional set of Bass and some additional prerecorded music.
The next logical move was to bring in the musicians and go completely live as a Trio.
Thus, Mono Means One included an extraordinary Synthesizer player named Isaac Young and an intense player of the skins, drummer Rob Madore.
The two together have played for five years and are known as Px(3)
Soon after joining forces, the trio put out their debut release “Listless Playthings of Enormous Forces.” The album features eight tracks of powerful music; but, the exquisiteness of their performance of these songs lies in the extended improvisational nature within them.
And so it is, that John, Isaac and Rob roll into Asheville, North Carolina for a night of much needed music for a city that has recently experienced the ravages of Category 4 Hurricane Helene.
In fact, part of the admission collected would be going to the Art Garden Asheville whose Art Garden was completely destroyed by the Hurricane. Asheville is well known for Music and the Arts, so helping out local artists is important to the Cities recovery.
One of the key elements that Mono Means One brings to the table in performance is improvisation. Tonight would be no exception.
At one point, John Ferrara asked the audience to shout out a key. The overwhelming winner was F# (although I was hoping for Gb!)
It is difficult to categorize a band that infuses elements of rock, prog, jazz, world and just about everything into its music. Perhaps they are their own genre or simply genreless!
And while the album is great, you simply can not stop there. To capture the full intensity of the music - you MUST see them LIVE! And it doesn’t hurt if you buy a t-shirt as well!
Marvelous, astonishing, intensifying, remarkable, stupendous, phenomenal are easily words that describe Mono Means One. But to me, the best work is UNDESCRIBABLE! Buy the album, buy the t-shirt, buy a sticker - but for gosh sakes buy a ticket and see this band!
Thank you John, Isaac and Rob for a spectacular evening of mind blowing and face melting music in Asheville! Truly, Live Music is Better - Bumper Stickers should be issued!
