A Small September Update

Here's a smaller update to wrap up September stuff.

On the 11th Stare Case and Nautical Almanac played at the Shop with White Reeves opening.  Stare Case played a tense set with bass and brass/woodwind instruments.  Nate Young recited poetry/talked over the other sounds.  It had a very New York punk attitude.  Later Nautical Almanac made a tent in the darkness and projected videos onto it and another screen while they created dissonant synth sounds and played some found percussive instruments.  Nautical Almanac played for a while (half an hour seeming like even longer) and it got tiresome sometimes, but it was also like being transported to another dimension or something.

On the 14th Voltage Spooks, featuring Keith Rowe of AMM, played at the Shop.  The first local band to play was Host Skull, but I missed them because I got there late.  I'm sure it was some sort of dual guitar free jazz with Dave Bernabo.  Next up, and the first for me, was Michael Johnsen, who played a whole floor of hand-built electronic devices.  He made a lot of squishing/snot/squirming sounds for nearly half an hour.  Over all it was really interesting, but since his set was not very dynamic it could have been much shorter.  Finally Voltage Spooks set up opposite the stage and played even longer than Michael Johnsen!  Their set was 45 minutes, but everyone was glued to the Voltage Spooks the whole time.  The Voltage Spooks were composed of the hum of machinery, the static of the radio, and the crackle of electricity.  Gears turned and knives cut at other times.  It was really great and totally immersive.

The show the next day ended up being pretty similar to the show on the 14th, however the mood and music were completely different.  Dead Rider, famed for including the guitarist of US Maple, played at the Shop with Brown Angel, Oryx Horns, and Carousel.  Again I missed the first band (Carousel).  David Bernabo returned to play second as a member of Oryx Horns who sounded a lot like Gangwish used to.  Clean drums met with computer synthesizers to create some cool instrumental dance music.  It was awesome.  Next up was Dead Rider who were very chaotic and confused me a lot.  I kept thinking that the guitarist was staring at me or something and at some point they had some sort of band fight and walked off for like six seconds.  It was similar to the US Maple stuff I've heard, but with some different instruments (more synth stuff).  After Dead Rider shredded Beefheartily, Brown Angel st up in utter darkness.  A noisy doom metal band, they sounded a lot better than the previous time I had seen them at Gooski's.  Lots of chunky riffs and Melvins style sequences; occasionally the guitar turned into screechy feedback.  At other times the guitarist produced some really cool warbly/cavernous sounds that reminded me of the Art of Noise before quickly turning into monstrous growls.  It was really cool, but I think the guitarist got mad when I took a picture with the flash.  Too bad.

Finally on the 23rd I saw Viper and Wasp Nest Head Dress open for Horse Bladder and Weyes Blood at Garfield Artworks.  Wasp Nest Head Dress is Eric Ross, all the way from Washington, PA, playing circuit bent toys mostly and doing some distorted, unintelligible vocals.  Viper is Joe Roemer of the legendary Macronympha playing solo harsh guitar noise that can get sort of psychedelic at times.  He also slams his amp around for spring reverb sounds.  After each had played, Eric and Joe teamed up for a while until the touring acts got there.  Horse Bladder played some Nico type stuff.  It was a lot less druggy and droning and also more poetic; I like Nico better.  Joe Roemer kept asking her about Northampton, MA for the rest of the show.
"Hey how's Thurston?"
"J Mascis, is he still around"
Finally Weyes Blood played acoustic guitar through a bunch of effects and sang.  She looked super young.  Her vocals seemed really professional and her guitar playing was sort of like celtic/new age stuff.

Here are some September sounds as we slowly get back to the present.

NEXT TIME: ELECTROLUMINATI #7