Pat Metheny/Larry Grenadier@The Broad Stage 09.25.11
By George W. Harris

It seems that with each passing year, iconic guitarist Pat Metheny is becoming less of a guitarist and more of a genius/mad scientist in the likes of Dr. Brown from Back To The Future. Make his long and jagged hair completely white, and it’s much easier to understand the trajectory of Metheny’s multiple and varied projects. The past few years he has toured as a) a leader of his own band b) in team with pianist Brad Mehldau, c) part of a “supertrio and d) a solo act creating wild and exciting sounds from his million pieced Orchestron Machine (aka “the flux capacitor”). This tour, which was supposed to be supporting his excellent solo reading of Baby Boomer songs, teamed the guitar king with nimble bassist Larry Grenadier, and all but ignored the recent album, performing a varied 100 minute display of what happens when strings meet with brains and fingers.

Metheny and Grenadier opened the evening with some exciting duets that displayed DeLorean-like speed on tunes like “Falling Grace” and “James,” bringing things to a more gentle mood on the pristine “Autumn Leaves.” From there, Metheny took us to 88 mph in the self described “The Acoustic Zone” with thrilling Spanish music from “Find Me In Your Dreams” and then switched to his two headed guitar/zither and sitar on a fascinating melody that sounded like he was driving through plutonium. From there, the drapes were drawn back, exposing a mini version of his famed music machine, and the duet made sounds from their strings, melded with the music from “Orchestron 2” and causing the entire audience to gasp “Great Scott” and the magnificent musical extravaganza of sound and vision. Closing with a facile “So It May Begin,” Metheny not only brought forth images of the famous 80s movie, but also a variation of the famous story that begins…”mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the best guitarist of them all?”