We played first, and we played the same set as we did for the benefit show the week before. I don't think it worked as well this time. There was a little more space to move around, but there were still no cool rock moves for the most part. We didn't really mess up or anything, but I feel like we were kind of just going through the motions. Dan and Laura disagreed, so I think it was more of my mood than anything. Also, everything sounded so compressed sonically, a characteristic of Roboto that I noticed a lot this night.
I was surprised as Wintermute took to the stage; I did not expect to see a violin. As soon as I saw that, I wondered if they were a post-rock band. Wintermute combines shoegaze and post-rock, and they go pretty hard. The sound was all-enveloping; it filled the room. Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, the room was a detriment to a few things. Wintermute has such a huge sound that they should be playing at the Rex or Mr. Smalls. I'm sure they don't have the draw power for a venue like one of those, but they sounded a bit muddy here at Roboto. I don't think it was their fault at all. The guitar was a bit too loud at times. Overall it was an excellent set, and I really enjoyed it.
Aloe played last. I was excited to see them play again; last time, they were so great! This time they sounded better, though Roboto's weird sound reduced the vastness of the sound. I heard things that reminded me of My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth, and the bass and drums provided a solid backdrop to the thrashing guitars. The lyrics were hard to make out, but it kind of goes with the musick. It's not much of an issue.
The show ended very early. It was just three bands, and we were all ready to go, it seems. There weren't any delays or problems; I think I got home a little before 10:30pm. The brevity of the show was nice after the massive show on Friday, though I was still feeling kind of empty and weird; this didn't really help that. That's a personal issue though. If you get a chance, definitely see Wintermute!
Side note: There was a Pittsburgh-based synthpop artist called Wintermute (aka Josh Slifkin). Circa 1986, I put out a full-length cassette for him and included him on the Outward Inward #2 cassette comp/zine, both on my label SSS Productions. Not surprised that it's a name that's been used several times for bands and various other things, since it's the name of an AI character in Neuromancer. But I believe Josh was first to use it.
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