---
title: Music I enjoy: Marc Ribot &amp; Ceramic Dog
author: George Mandis <george@mand.is>
date: 2014-05-27
tags: post, post, reviews, music, marc ribot
---

<p>This evening I got to add <a href="http://www.marcribot.com/">Marc Ribot</a> to my ever-growing collection of concert stubs. He played at <a href="http://mississippistudios.com">Mississippi Studios</a> with his band Ceramic Dog.</p>
<p>His style is difficult to pin-down. I'll sum it up by calling it... adventurous. And pointing you to <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/music/index.ssf/2014/05/marc_ribots_busy_schedule_land.html#incart_river">this article about him in the Oregonian</a>. You can also watch what appears to be <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaVtw1YwVeM">an entire Ceramic Dog concert on YouTube</a>. I only watched a little bit of it, but it captures the general spirit of the thing, albeit at a much more reasonable volume.</p>
<p>I went with a friend and tried to recall exactly how I'd come to hear of Marc Ribot. He's known for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc6zFGxCkTo">playing with Tom Waits</a>, but I remember being surprised by this fact. My earliest recollection was probably from the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Masada-Guitars-John-Zorn/dp/B00007GZNU/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=snapwebl-20&amp;linkCode=w01&amp;linkId=SS6ZNEC6HIINVWRN&amp;creativeASIN=B00007GZNU">Masada Guitars</a> album — part of a John Zorn project. I'd purchased the album because I had just gotten into Bill Frisell, who is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masada_Guitars">on there as well</a>. Bill is great, but something about Marc's playing on this particular album <a title="When Michael Hurley sings I hear truth there" href="/2014/04/michael-hurley-sings-hear-truth/">spoke to me</a> and I became a fan.</p>
<p>Curiously, I'd never given Ceramic Dog much a listen. I'd been much-more into his <a href="http://www.marcribot.com/solo.html">solo guitar efforts</a> and  a project of his called <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Marc-Ribot-Los-Cubanos-Postizos/dp/B000006OB6/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=snapwebl-20&amp;linkCode=w01&amp;linkId=VZLU6BDJKWO6QZYR&amp;creativeASIN=B000006OB6">Los Cubanos Postizos</a> (The Prosthetic Cubans). The latter is surprisingly more straightforward than a lot of his other stuff, though you'd never necessarily know that if you watched this:</p>
<p><iframe width="100%" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/1AQMo6LMYzA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Tonight's Ceramic Dog show was great though, save the unexpected event about halfway through where a woman collapsed near the front. The show stopped and the paramedics were called. I hope she's alright... A cursory Twitter search tells me she may have had a seizure. Not to make light of the situation, but if ever there were a soundtrack designed to induce seizures...</p>
<p><iframe width="100%" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/4oJ5bJ2Okao" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>