Play That Funky Cello, White Boy

On Tuesday, I kissed the kids goodnight and headed to Joe’s Pub in NYC to hear a guy named Trevor Exter sing songs about his life and play the cello.  This is not nearly as lame as it sounds because a) Exter can really sing and b) Exter rocks the cello and makes music with it that is entirely “un-classical” and totally cool.  An old friend of mine is Exter’s agent (allegedly) and invited me to the show.  (“We’ll have a drink with Trevor after the show,” she told me on the phone the previous afternoon.  She was nowhere to be found.  Ah, well)

After a brief scuffle with the woman working the door — “The box office is CLOSED,” she kept insisting as though I’d shown up late and without a ticket to see “Phantom of the Opera” — I was eventually allowed in and there he was, sitting on stage all alone, just a man and his cello.  The sight of it was jarring, almost funny, at first, but then I realized that Exter is a serious musician who makes beautiful, haunting, serious music.

After a few songs, Exter invited a drummer to join him on stage and they played a few songs.  The drummer emerged from a very small door at the back of the stage, which eventually disgorged a bass player, a sax player, and a harmonica player.  It was the nightclub version of a clown car.  (A quick bass story… In the eight grade, I was the MC for my school’s talent show and introduced one of my classmates as playing the electric bass, which I pronounced like the fish.  I couldn’t understand why everyone was laughing.) 

At the end of their last song together, Exter jumped out of his seat and gave his cello a sort of “modified Pete Townsend windmill” and the crowd went about as wild as a crowd will ever go at a Trevor Exter show, which is to say modestly and politely wild, but not really very wild at all.

Exter came back out by himself to play a few encores, ending with a fabulous rendition of “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” (also covered brilliantly by one of my favorite bands, The Housemartins).

All in all, I thought Mr. Exter was awesome.  Two thumbs up, Trevor!

Tags: cello, he ain't heavy he's my brother, joe's pub, trevor exter