Big Ears 2025 – Day 1 – Avant Music News

We are in Knoxville again for this year’s Big Ears festival. I’ll be posting short reviews of a few shows each day.

Met up with a handful of friends for an early dinner Thursday afternoon. After, most of us headed to…

Tigran Hamasyan

Someone I had never heard of until a few hours before seeing him live, Hamasyan put on the strongest opening I’ve yet experienced at any Big Ears. A pianist / keyboardist steeped in jazz, classic and Armenian folk, he was joined by another keyboardist as well as a bass / drums rhythm section. The heaviness of their music was its most unusual and compelling aspect, with metal riffs and labyrthine timings. Brilliant stuff.

SUSS

This ambient western trio / quartet would have benefited from a less crowded, less hot venue with better sight lines. Nonetheless their unique brand of twangy drones had its appeal despite the band moving quite deliberately through their visual-enhanced set. By the midpoint it had quieted the crowd and grown on this listener as they added more electronic instruments.

Tortoise

I’ll admit little familiarity with this jazzy rock outfit from my hometown area of Chicago. Seeing them for the first time here was a nice opportunity. Unfortunately, the venue was standing-only, very crowded, and the sound had a weak mix. The audio got better and Tortoise him a groove after an awkward start, but by then we were moving on to…

Axiom 5

The four-piece free jazz outfit of Barry Altschul, Mark Helias, Uri Caine, and Jon Irabagon provided their take on traditional free jazz. With an average age of 67, the group was remarkably energetic and agile in their playing. They moved seamlessly between floating melodies, dense structures, and solos. They finished a little after 11pm and I was pretty tired at this point but it was a fitting capstone to the opening day.