"What I sought was the rapture of vertigo ... the relapse... to nothingness."Samuel Beckett
Kind of odd to be recording thoughts and impressions of theZero scene. It feels a little illegitimate; as if it is somehownot what's appropriate for Zero consciousness, that zen-likeconcept of effortless trance meditation, anchored in the immediate,floating and drifting with the musicians who are spinning theirspells on stage in front of you. I used to take notes on mostof my concert experiences, mostly for fun, sometimes for a writer's exercisea focused journal entryand occasionallyfor absent friends who wanted to know ... but that was alwaysdifficult for Zero. They were tough. After a particularly sublimemoment, at a Maritime Hall show this past spring, all I couldwrite was "nothing will be mine, here ... nothing, asin Zero." It reminds me of a line from one of Ken Kesey's journals: "Only nothing is instantaneous./ Everythingelse takes time." Amen, Ken. Let me tell you about thisband ... because the feeling they project now is that this partof their history won't last much longer; and like all histories,it carries the promise that the record of time will mean morethan just itself.
June 15, 1996 Zero show tonight. Notpsyched, but a promise made ... And what a show. Only a few notesscribbled ... Best I've ever seen them perform. A perfectcatharsis, musically: some great bluesy, heavy rock, intersplicedwith long instrumental jazz numbers; simply elegant, sublime musicianshipthroughout. Zero is cantankerous; they have a definite edgy personality.When they're on, they'll amaze; and when the moodisn't right, they can sink to the moment. But tonight,from the moment they openedwith some gorgeous instrumentalthey could hit no wrong note. I was transported. Even though incrediblytired, almost passing out on my feet by the end, but enjoyingevery note. Highlights were the opener; "She's So Heavy," with a great job on vocals and the kindof building crescendos that acknowledged the Dead's influencenicely; and the final two tunes of the second set, long instrumentalsthat carried you through every stage of emotional response. Splendidcatharsis, indeed.
That was the show that I 'got it'hadmy first Zero epiphany. And even then, I was
still thinking ofthem as a temperamentalthough consummatemusicians.From the outset, a
characteristic of Zero was that it had therep as a musicians' band: they had the imprimatur of
MarinCounty's finest for years before their audience surgedfollowing the post-Dead phenomenon
of Deadheads pouring theirefforts into surrogates. But Zero also inherited the anti-celebrityattitude
of many musicians' bands: no star trips, somethingthat saxophonist Martin Fierro had reputedly
brushed up againstwhen he was involved with the Dead for a few projects, includinghorn
arrangements an album as well as playing with Jerry Garciain a couple of his side-bands. It left a
mark on Zero that canstill be seen in the resolute and natural way that they move throughtheir
audiences, who respectfully give them room, occasionallyapproach and are invariably dealt with
politely; and why the bandmakes it a point to bring their infant children to shows. Allpart of the
'Zero Family' ethos that they successfullyproject.
Martin exemplifies that, to some extent: the guy who refusesto take himself too
seriously, yet when he plays, it'snothing but serious ... but what a goof, off the sax. Even
Stevecan show some of that self-deprecating humor, musically. Thisspring I saw him with his
own band, Steve Kimock and Friends,and he took a stunning solo with the guitar held up behind
hisneck, Hendrix-stylegreat spectacle to have with your musicalvitamins. And the solo was first
rate, too; at first, I thoughteverybody was just cheering for the licks I was hearing, as Iwas
swaying with my eyes closed. Martin was the reason I firstwent to see Zero, though. I had first
encountered him on the Dead's studio masterpiece, Wake of the Flood, yet another ofthe many
introductions they provided to so many other musics andmusicians. It made me interested in
hearing my first Zero gig,in the spring of 1988 at a San Francisco club. Even then, I thoughtthey
picked up on much of the feeling I had come to expect fromthe Deadbut Zero was very much its
own beast. They laidclaim to that elusive common territory that improvisation of allstripes seems to
aim for at its heart, some sort of ur-communicationcommunion reallythat describes
acontinuum encompassing performer and audience, from intentionto composition to anticipation to
reaction, that is seamless andwhole and transcendent; and that is where Zero shines.
July 6, 1996 Zero was good last night.Very good. Several of those moments when the
music was just perfect;in the presence of the X-factor. Such a cool, small place, too:the
Fairfax Pavilion, which is nothing more than an old-fashionedhigh school gymnasium.
And Zero was so down-home, so approachablein that context. First set was strongthe
band played asif they were seriously enjoying themselves; not playful, but very,very
interested in getting somewhere. And they did. ... By thesecond tune the place was
swelteringSan Franciscans forgetits summer elsewhere in the Bay Area. And it was
about ninetydegrees and very humid, soon, in that place. ... Seeing the bandfrom the
sidea vantage the looseness of the crowd andthe position of the beer pavilion
permittedwas somethingof a treat, too; such a small, small place, and the musiciansso
accessible, seeing Steve muttering and mouthing the notes hewas thinking, picking, pulling
out on the moment, weaving hismelody lines around Martine's sax or Chip's
Hammond.Impossible not to dance, even when guarding a beer from otherdancers, and
everyone in the pavilion is boogieing to Zero, too.Hot and sweaty in a high school gym
againit's beena while.
The reggae tune was well done, tooall I jotted was'wow.' Zero is a band that can
make much complexityand beauty from the simplest of platforms; a trait they sharewith
certain other nameless Marin County bands, and a hallmarkthe hallmark?of great
improvisation. This was so simplea launch vehicle ... and such a wondrous result. I had a
coupleof great conversations with fellow Deadheads at the break, discussingZero,
Quicksilver, some other Haight-Ashbury bands, and all mattershippie for a leisurely couple
of bowls and the remainder of mybeer. As I debate whether to have another, I saw a chance
to speakto Martí n and didand after thanking him, somehow foundmyself asking him for
his autograph. And he was so friendly andpersonable and seemed delighted, drawing a
little picture forme on one of my notecards and signing it, in a big bold scrawl;it kind of
made me think of some of his solosand he huggedme as he handed it to me; I was
flabbergasted. Not exactly thestereotype of the unapproachable artist.
Second set is where this show shone. The Chance In A Millionjam was nirvana; I
wrote: "All the music I need." They covered all of my sacred musical bases, all of the
emotionallandscape necessary to make catharsis flow. Then came Little Wing.Get this tape.
Jimi smiles when he sees tribute like this. Thecrowd went nuts; a sea of surging, pulsing
leaping tie-dye. Thespirit lives on, I think. My last comment was next to Pits
ofThunder"wow, Zero stripped to a four-piece," which smoked. As Ralph Gleason used
to say to close one his concertreviews for the Chronicle back in the Sixties, even one like
theFillmore Acid Test, 'Quite a night.' Indeed.
So why write it now? Because they have thisnew album out ... and it's very, very good ... and it feelsstrange, as if this might be a scene, an artistic community thatis about to break open, reach a whole new level of exposure andpopularity and fame, and lose some of itself in the process, almosta flashback to the sense of dread I had when I listened to theDead's In the Dark, and thought that the secretwas finally out. Old Deadheads called the new converts In-the Darkheads,and the scene never really got its feet back underneath itselfafter that; there just wasn't enough time and oldtimersto teach the new seekers how to behave, how to fit in, how tolearn and grow and make their own contribution to the scene. Ironically,in that sense Deadheadom was sunk by the same ethos that sunkthe Haight, which Garcia talked about in his long Rolling Stoneinterview with Greening of America author Charles Reich:"For any scene to work, along with that freedom there's implicit responsibilityyou have to be doing somethingsomewhere along the linethere is no free ride. And youhave to know where you're going. It's helpful tohave a scene that will indulge you long enough to let you findout." Too many peopleand it simply sinks.
April 18, 1997 The Zero crowd strikesme as being awfully similar to the most sophisticated part ofthe Dead audience, drawn by something like the inverse of theDead's central form of improvisation: the limits of suggestedimpliedimprovisation, the way classical music embracesthe limits of interpretation. Catalina comes off beautifully,and the end makes me realizethis is the nascentDead; I am watching a scene take shape and grow. Yes I know it's already a decademore than a decadeold, but thevibe has that feel ... if they just push things a bit, this couldplay in Peoria.
Which may be part of why the Zero scene doesn't have that same level of absolute
openness that the Dead scenedid. There is an initiation. As you walk in, the first sense youget
before a Zero concert is more like the feel of a jazz club,with bright musically literate patrons who
reflect the passionand competitiveness of the musicians in front of them. And ifyou listen well,
respectfully, attentively, and make the rightnoises, and get itwithout giving a goddam for
anythingelse around youthen you pass, and next time you'll get a nod. Zero's fans are a bit more
ebullient andeffusive than that, but they're every bit as reflectiveand literate. And enough of them
were Deadheads to know that theydon't want their scene to outgrow itself, and get dilutedinto that
old traditional audience-performer dichotomy epitomizedby a pool of drunk faces yelling at a stage
of besieged musiciansto play their radio hits.
But the scene opens up, when you show your interest; whenyou dance to the music,
and not to show off or cruise for romance,though that can happen at Zero shows when you don't
makeit a goal. It seems like shows have more and more dancing, overthe last couple of years,
though whenever I crossed the bridgeinto Marin, it was always wall-to-wall movement, swaying
and grooving.It takes a little longer for San Franciscans, I guess; or maybeThe City is where they
are picking up their new, younger fans,most of whom have never been trained to listen and dance
and forgetand flow. Zero is teaching them. They are nothing if not greatmentors. Demanding
teachers, too. The funniest moment my fifteenyears of concerts came at a Steve Kimock and
Friends show, longpast midnight, at a tiny bar in San Rafael, bandstand so low abeer glass on the
floor stuck up an inch or so above, and a devoteewas getting tired, no longer able to do much more
than twitch,and as Steve is taking another solo, subtle and eloquent, thefan yawns, right in front of
Martin, only a couple of feet away,holding his horn, attentively waiting for his friend to
finish,catches sight of this stifled power yawnand just thwacksthe fan, "hey, wake up! pay
attention!" and I just collapsed with laughter. The performer-audience barrieraccording to Martin.
They came on at a little past 9:30, startingoff with a slow groove, nice and mellow; a good blues, good vehiclefor the mood, and the jam, to evolve. Steve's first soloshowed lots of energy. Then some punch, a groove tune next andMartin just soars over the melody, punching through the groovelike a paper bag; he shines. When Steve jumps in and on and aroundhim, it feels like you're listening to a bull-fighter dancingwith a bull, leading him around the ring gently, respectfully,and Martin is allowing himself to be led. Rigor Mortis was superb.'Wow' was all I could manage to write. So much spacein the groove; part of what Zero does so well: simple arrangementsplayed simply, opening them up and out and exploring every crackand crevice.
Over the years that I was seeing other bands, I kept checkingin with Zero. I still didn't
fully 'get it'there were always those around me who clearly were gettingmore of what was going
on than me. But there was always enoughto draw me back. After this many years of seeing bands
for whomthe live performance was the principle means of artistic expression,I knew it might take a
few times. At first, I found their rhythmtoo clinical, their sound too bright and thin; now I wonder
whetherI simply was clueless, or if their sound reinforcement has improved,or if I have simply
learned and grown. When I heard their newalbum, I thought back to that impression because
Judge's vocals seemed too bright, as if the bass had been lopped off;there may be some truth to
thatin concert, I think hisbaritone has much greater depth than on the disc. But speakerswash
everything together, and maybe they mixed for that. It's still a good sounding CD. It should win a
great many converts,if it gets decent distribution and any kind of airplay at all.
That first gig made me feel that they had absorbed much ofthe Dead's feel for
improvising, since their jams definitelycaptured the ethos that the Dead did, but I didn't knowat the
time to what extent that terrain had been explored by somany others, including several other
Haight-Ashbury bands in theSixties, including one that featured a guitarist who would goon to
play with Zero, John Cipollina, whose work with QuicksilverMessenger Service in the Sixties was
a major contribution to rockguitar's electric vocabulary. The more I learned, the moreI realized that
Zero was drawing from the same well of predominantlyAmerican musical forms that the Dead and
Quicksilver and Janis's first band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and CountryJoe and the
Fish and several others all explored, each emphasizingcertain currents over others, mixing them all
together and exploringcollectively, elevating the jam into the grand artistic grailfor the evening.
Most of those bands said thenand someof their surviving members continue to say
todayadmiringthings about the others; they all seem to feel that on a givennight, one of their
peers was the best band performing at thetime. Zero falls so squarely in that long, loose lineage,
heirsto the same rich and diverse set of traditions, all the way downto their generosity in crediting
those early San Francisco rockgiants. In their new album, they thank Jerry Garcia in the
credits,and despite their large spiritedness, I wonder if there was apause over that one; the critically
mindless dismissive comparisonsto the Dead must rankle a bit by now.
First set beganand at the very firstsolo, I wrote "SK owns the guitar-tripping audience." The 'lineal successor to Jerry' appelation is containedright there: more than anything else, that is the reason. Thosebeautifully articulated, liquid, pure-picked noteswhya certain core of people find it intoxicating to listen to him.My favorite comment from a clueless scenester behind me was "they sound like a jazz band!" and the sneer stretchingout 'jazz' was simply poetic in its irony. Thatwas where I stopped taking notes for the first set, concentratinginstead on dancing and floating. Great great set: they smokedand sang and wailed in fine and high style.
In a recent America On-Line interview, one fan wrote to askif it was true that Steve had studied with Garcia, prompting theresponse: "NO, I NEVER STUDIED WITH ANYBODY."
August 15, 1997 And second set ... Aperfect one ... how did that go? Well ... very, very
well. Andwith dire thoughts of what success could do to them and us andwhat it would feel
like to hear them in so much bigger venues... but yeah, they could fill a stadium ... their
sound is sofull, so round; their command of dynamics is so complete.