(This write-up is a complete hackjob. Sorry. Don't care.)
This event had problems up the wazoo. Cevin Key and Otto Von Sriracha (HEYYY-OOOO) dropped out and a day or two before the actual event, all kind of rumors were going around that other big names were dropping out or on the fence. As far as I know, it was only the first two artists who bailed, but I only went to this event to see Author & Punisher. I tried to stick around and watch some other acts, namely Paul barker, but I ended up talking to Tristan Shone and his wife for a little while which to my old ass, was a lot more pleasant than standing in a loud dark crowded room with a load of the great unwashed. I thought I might even get in and back home before Jeopardy! was over, but alas, both that and Wheel Of Fortune had long been over by the time I got home and into bed. But what I did encounter, I will now share with you. ONWARD! To the smacktalkin'!
The first act, who I won't actually name (let's just call them the Rocky Horror Shit Show) because I'm not entirely stoked on bashing some kids who are obviously devoted and having a really good time, but people need negative feedback if they're going to improve. A friend noted to someone else that "She can write better music", indicating me, then checked himself when he realized that it's actually true (ohh i'm bad look at me plugging myself).
God, let's just do a checklist: too much dressing up, too many people using too nice of gear for the amount and quality of sound coming out of the speakers, absolutely ZERO clarity of sound, which was partially the space's fault. It is not a good room unless you're right up close and I wasn't about to anywhere near that clown act. I'm not even going into the Performance Art aspect of it. The singer had 3 mics all taped together and I assumed he had pedals to switch between them or something cool, but no, he sang into all 3 for the duration and the distortion was much too intense and not properly mixed. The whole thing came out as a wall of static which I guess is some people's idea of good, but it came off as amateur hour in this case. I could tell they were aiming high, for some breakbeaty Skinny Puppy type sound, but it was not pulling together whatsoever. Like when you want to make pancakes, but the mix is too thin and you end up with a big burnt (glittery) crepe. Yes. YES. that's EXACTLY what it was like, my god I'm a genius...
Next up was David J. of Bauhaus/other goth shit fame. What was he doing? You ask. He was DJing. And everyone came up to the stage to watch him do it too. I was up there because I didn't know he had a full 40 minute slot and was anticipating live music and didn't want to give up my good spot, so there I I stood, suffering through mediocre DJing from some guy with what appeared to be an assistant/minion/facebook updater sitting next to him. I could not figure out what the hell he was doing there, or why everyone was crowded around to watch someone DJ, which is a thing you can see literally every night of the week in this town.
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| I'm getting weak at the knees just thinking about this. |
It was Shone's birthday, and he was drunk as hell. He fucked up a number of times, but the only time I noticed a confirmed fuckup was during Lonely, which I've listened to death and know by heart (Terrorbird sounded spot on though). The comparatively irregular, unpredictable nature of his rhythms seems to allow for mistakes because there are a lot of weird pauses to begin with. Besides, I don't go to concert to hear reproductions of album tracks. I go to see music be played by humans and that very much includes mistakes. I only talk about this as much as I am because I think this is an important element lacking in a lot of music, but especially in the industrial/electronic scene. People seem so afraid of lacking precision simply because computers allow you to be precise. This sentiment goes for ALL live music and it's what makes seeing live music so exciting.
There's a quote from Steve Albini which might be my favorite quote of all time:
"I don’t give two splats of an old negro junkie’s vomit for your politico-philosophical treatises, kiddies. I like noise. I like big-ass vicious noise that makes my head spin. I wanna feel it whipping through me like a fucking jolt. We’re so dilapidated and crushed by our pathetic existence we need it like a fix.”
That's precisely what I got when A&P started his set. It started out slow and the shift between checking to see everything was working to actually playing the first song was invisible. All of a sudden I got punched in the face by this wall of sound coming out of the speaker in front of me. I was trying to be a hardass and go without earplugs, but I pussed out. The volume and power happening was totally absurd, all-consuming and overwhelming. So much screaming, both human and machine, it was totally insane and was one of my most intense concert experiences ever. I don't have a lot to say about his performance really, because it's better seen than talked about. If you have a chance to see him live, do it. This is the kind of music that forces your understanding of sound to change. I've lost all concept of what's right and wrong in the making of music over my years of listening to it, I only know good and bad. People who are fiercely DIY such as Shone and going back to my first life-altering musical experience, seeing Einsteurzende Neubauten when I was 21, really turn my shit upside down and inside out.
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| The only action shot I got. Bad lighting and I just wanted to listen without distraction. |
Next up was another set by David J, and I couldn't help but yell some derogatory shit and demand that A&P just play through his set. I'm such an asshole. Given the cancellations, I feel it would have been a cool move to give the artists longer sets, but I don't think that happened.
Paul Barker was up next, with 2 dudes on laptops, someone on guitar and himself on bass. At first I was pretty stoked on this because I love Ministry and Lard even moreso, but I quickly became bored with the Ministry-as-a-jam-band schtick, so I wandered around to see if I could talk to Tristan. I found him, but he seemed to be having a crappy time loading his gear up, so I left and came back later. Dude asks if I want to have a drink and I get ushered through the loading exit doors, walk beside the stage while Paul Barker is still playing and see yet ANOTHER guy hiding in the back with a laptop. I don't know what he was doing, they had a sound guy already, but it just seemed offputting to see so many laptops in action.
Tristan instantly got wrapped up in, you know, DOING HIS JOB, so I sat around and talked a bit with his wife about San Diego and stuff and briefly fantarded with Tristan about Justin Broadrick. Apparently, A&P has been asked to contribute to a Godflesh covers comp, which I hope to god actually comes to fruition because that's possibly MORE exciting then when I found that Godflesh cover Blut Aus Nord did. He and his label guy were both unable to help me get a spot on the guestlist, and both were apologetic. Tristan pretty much told me to take what I wanted off his merch table as compensation. I had already bought a copy of The Painted Army EP (yesssssss), so I grudgingly accepted a copy of Drone Machines, since I really wanted a physical copy of it, but didn't want to take a bunch of free shit from a touring act because that's where bands get their money these days. So when you go to shows, buy a fuckin' t shirt or something.
Paul Barker was up next, with 2 dudes on laptops, someone on guitar and himself on bass. At first I was pretty stoked on this because I love Ministry and Lard even moreso, but I quickly became bored with the Ministry-as-a-jam-band schtick, so I wandered around to see if I could talk to Tristan. I found him, but he seemed to be having a crappy time loading his gear up, so I left and came back later. Dude asks if I want to have a drink and I get ushered through the loading exit doors, walk beside the stage while Paul Barker is still playing and see yet ANOTHER guy hiding in the back with a laptop. I don't know what he was doing, they had a sound guy already, but it just seemed offputting to see so many laptops in action.
Tristan instantly got wrapped up in, you know, DOING HIS JOB, so I sat around and talked a bit with his wife about San Diego and stuff and briefly fantarded with Tristan about Justin Broadrick. Apparently, A&P has been asked to contribute to a Godflesh covers comp, which I hope to god actually comes to fruition because that's possibly MORE exciting then when I found that Godflesh cover Blut Aus Nord did. He and his label guy were both unable to help me get a spot on the guestlist, and both were apologetic. Tristan pretty much told me to take what I wanted off his merch table as compensation. I had already bought a copy of The Painted Army EP (yesssssss), so I grudgingly accepted a copy of Drone Machines, since I really wanted a physical copy of it, but didn't want to take a bunch of free shit from a touring act because that's where bands get their money these days. So when you go to shows, buy a fuckin' t shirt or something.
Tristan is an exceptionally nice, upbeat and unpretentious guy, which seems kinda funny given the music he makes. But then again, I'd probably be a rather different person if I got to man-handle chunks of metal and scream my brains out on a regular basis too. Now I'm having flashbacks to helping at a computer recycling site, tearing apart old housings with my bare hands, harvesting harddrives, chucking monitors into sorting bins and bleeding from every part of my hands because of it.
Good times for an angry Luddite.
Good times for an angry Luddite.
Before I gave up and dragged my haggard spine home, I took a look at Martin Rev. Now, I know that he is a weird guy. But I can't help but look at an aging dude in glittery pants, hammering away at a keyboard with his sunglasses and scraggly hair and think of the residential hotel trannies (shut up, I get to say that word because I am a tranny) who used to hang out around my last place of work. I didn't stay long enough to determine if his act was actually any good or not, but my friends seemed to be diggin' it ("Dude, is he sampling Wu Tang???" * ).
I have mixed feeling on aging musicians, I have little interest in silly getups and presentation and it's always nice when musicians age with grace and do not attempt to cling to their glory days. So if you show me an old man in sparkle pants, I'm going to turn my nose up, perhaps unfairly, but that's just me. Maybe that was the point of Rev's thing, to confuse and make you rethink your initial reaction to the crazy bastards you see on the street. Or anywhere.
* A friend says this: A point of clarification, Suicide & Wu Tang both sampled the same song, Different Strokes by Syl Johnson.
I have mixed feeling on aging musicians, I have little interest in silly getups and presentation and it's always nice when musicians age with grace and do not attempt to cling to their glory days. So if you show me an old man in sparkle pants, I'm going to turn my nose up, perhaps unfairly, but that's just me. Maybe that was the point of Rev's thing, to confuse and make you rethink your initial reaction to the crazy bastards you see on the street. Or anywhere.
* A friend says this: A point of clarification, Suicide & Wu Tang both sampled the same song, Different Strokes by Syl Johnson.
