On January 14th the Roup 200 party was held in celebration of rouper RJ and roupie Becca's one year anniversary, the same people's birthdays, and the 200th Roup Blog post. It was a huge party with lots of food and bands. I was scheduled to play as Satyr/Elfheim and then as part of Mousy Razor/Mouth Eraser, but this didn't happen.
Legs Like Tree Trunks played in the basement first. Nobody really knew them, but they had asked to play for some reason; it was kind of cool. They sounded very college-y and brought a big audience of Pitt kids that left quickly. Jangle pop
Next Relationships, the new emo kids doing math band featuring Eric Ross (Wasp Nest Head Dress), took over the basement. A lot of pictures were taken and rouper Brian carried rouper Autumn around during their set. They had a lot of cool riffs/chord progressions or whatever you call them and gave it their all. I don't really like later emo stuff, but Relationships is pretty cool and don't have those terrible vocals that are often employed.
As soon as Relationships stopped, Last of England, the infamous harsh noise of RJ Myato and Erik Ciora, enveloped the area, frightening the unexpected. They were joined by Eric Ross on drums and played an awesome set, probably one of the best Last of England sets that I've seen. I don't think that there was nudity, but it was fun to see people so afraid of noise and thrashing and spitting.
Next was KBD from Ohio in the Roup living room. Their set was spooky; you could here a craft approaching across the darkened skies and over mountains. We were taken aboard, hearing distorted vocalizations, finally being let go to awaken in a cold, waterlogged marsh covered in lush foliage. This is what you hear at 3AM on WRCT that causes you to do the same.
We returned to the basement to see rouper Brian and his friend Rob play a great set. There was a weird dynamic caused by the two sharing an amp causing loud feedback, but they pulled it off. Brian sang with tons of reverb and played keyboard while Rob played simple, but very effective guitar parts. Lots of screechy pop ensued, including a cover of Robyn Hitchcock's "Listening to the Higsons". Ali and the Haitians or the Ramblin' Roosters is probably one of the top Roup affiliated bands and they need to play another show.
Returning to the living room, Jason Zeh played a tone for half an hour. He was very good: meditative, stark, and focused. Listening closely revealed tiny details like staring into a circuit board city. He and I apparently know each other from somewhere, but neither of us knew from where.
Dire Wolves played their second last show next (the first last show was in December 2011). Creaking/crackling Teisco guitar and a weird flute and Daphne's trumpet, it was all very interesting. Dire Wolves was much more focused and less singalong-y than in December and I was glad to see them, even though they were taking the place that I was originally supposed to occupy. It was fun though; thankfully they had one last last show next month.
KEROAÄN was last in the basement. Featuring Reed Evan Rosenberg of Tandem Electrics, who had played Quiet Sound Night VI at Roup last year, KEROAÄN was like Last of Engkand with lights instead of nudity and physical confrontation. Their set was a marathon of cutting lasers and pulsing, hissing noise. At times they would stop and come back again at near full speed, a head on collision. I lost sense of what was going on and became very confused at some point of it, possibly due to a low blood sugar. I do remember the intensity.
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