This is footage from the Ex’s second show as a band. They’ve been all over the place since then. On their first U.S. tour instead of renting a van they just bought a completely broke down used one that they constantly had to work on, maybe they thought it would be good for their morale? Stranger things have happened, I’ve even heard of American bands touring Europe without hiring a driver. Luc injured his leg at some point, and so he had to perform while sitting on a stool. By twists and turns this stool ended up in Barrington, IL somehow. The first time I ever saw them play they were opening up for Fugazi at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC. At one point Terrie was playing his guitar with a spoon, and it sounded like a violin and that blew my mind, and was probably the start of my obsession with people playing instruments in a way that sounded like some other instrument. The Ex are a band that are at their best when they are playing with other people though. I wish I could have seen them play with Tom Cora, their records with him are my favorite, and Mississippi Records recently reissued the Scrabbling at the Lock on vinyl.
The last time I saw the Ex was at Millennium Park in Chicago. They were performing with Getatchew Mekuria, and a couple of other Dutch dudes with a dude on bass playing in the Dog Faced Hermans style, and then the rest of the dudes were playing horns. I was on my lunch break so I didn’t get to see the whole set. I was grumpy the rest of the day from not having eaten, and not having been able to watch their entire set. A week later I was driving a car across the country to go live in San Francisco.
That last picture is them playing something no doubt crazy & intense sounding to a bunch of Ethiopians. The great thing about the Ex is they have no ideology, they just do what they want, and collaborate with all kinds of awesome musicians. That’s how it should be.