Too much music?
Apr. 11th, 2005 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
realexplodingcatI didn't go to see Rocket Queen last Thursday. I forgot and I was too busy. But, dammit, I want to see a Guns N Roses cover band. Anybody local ever see them?
Saturday I played a show here in Charlottesville with Silent Muse. This is the second time we have played the Outback Lodge. I think that place is cursed. It just has a bad vibe for me. All of my favorite shows have occurred elsewhere. But we made the best of it. Some technical difficulties caused our backing track to skip during the 2nd song. We sounded like System of a Down or something, stop on a dime silence for a second, before raging forward again with the music. But it didn't actually sound good or planned. Somehow we managed to stay in time though. There was some unplanned lag time between songs, also due to trouble with the back track. Gave me time to noodle around on the keyboard to fill dead air. I ought to learn some goofy organ intermission music for those occasions.
We were the 2nd band of three. Media Violence opened. Noisy, stompy dance stuff. They sounded good. Great refined sound, although I think most of it was sequenced. Their back track was definitely more consistent than ours. And the singer? That man can shriek. I like a good shrieker. In Tenebris headlined the show, doing a splendid job. The audience seemed small, but I know a fair amount of them enjoyed the show. And the resident heckler didn't yell too many insults, at least none that I could hear very well over the noise. He must have been tired.
Sunday we travelled to the 9:30 Club for the The Geek Show 2005. Stunning show. Challenging music, but the artists in the bands are extraordinary performers. Very skilled musicians. The Trio Convulsant is a jazz trio of electric guitar, upright bass, and drums. Not traditional jazz, of course. Very loud jazz. Jazz with power chords and unexpected bursts of aggression. The Locust followed. They are a very heavy, screaming, ear bleeding experience. I'm not a huge fan of hardcore music, but they won me over. They made the noise interesting. They also had a keyboard player, which I haven't seen in a hardcore band before. It looked like he had genuine analog synthesizer on stage, probably a Moog. A big black box with lights and plugs that actually needed to be rearranged between songs to produce bizarre ambient noises.
And of course, Fantomas. Sigh... I loves the Fantomas. They continue to be unlike anything I've ever heard before. One of the aspects I like about Fantomas is their (I keep saying their, but Mike Patton is responsible for writing everything) ability to convey humor through music without any lyrics. The twists and turns that the flow of sound takes are so bizarre, with each change-up seeming to comment on what came before, it just makes me laugh.
Can I take a little more music? Melt Banana is playing here at the Satellite Ballroom tomorrow night. I'm not a huge fan, but how often does an internationally known JapaNoise band play in Charlottesville? I saw them open for Mr. Bungle in 1995 or so. It was a harrowing experience. One that I'm willing to repeat. Charlottesville is the first stop on a large USA tour, I think I might reward them for that choice. Anybody interested in listening to a Japanese girl shriek and warble over the din of a precise, but cacophonous rock band that at times sounds like a garbage truck driving over a cliff? You know you want to. I think doors are at 8pm tomorrow. There are two opening bands with whom I am not familiar.
Saturday I played a show here in Charlottesville with Silent Muse. This is the second time we have played the Outback Lodge. I think that place is cursed. It just has a bad vibe for me. All of my favorite shows have occurred elsewhere. But we made the best of it. Some technical difficulties caused our backing track to skip during the 2nd song. We sounded like System of a Down or something, stop on a dime silence for a second, before raging forward again with the music. But it didn't actually sound good or planned. Somehow we managed to stay in time though. There was some unplanned lag time between songs, also due to trouble with the back track. Gave me time to noodle around on the keyboard to fill dead air. I ought to learn some goofy organ intermission music for those occasions.
We were the 2nd band of three. Media Violence opened. Noisy, stompy dance stuff. They sounded good. Great refined sound, although I think most of it was sequenced. Their back track was definitely more consistent than ours. And the singer? That man can shriek. I like a good shrieker. In Tenebris headlined the show, doing a splendid job. The audience seemed small, but I know a fair amount of them enjoyed the show. And the resident heckler didn't yell too many insults, at least none that I could hear very well over the noise. He must have been tired.
Sunday we travelled to the 9:30 Club for the The Geek Show 2005. Stunning show. Challenging music, but the artists in the bands are extraordinary performers. Very skilled musicians. The Trio Convulsant is a jazz trio of electric guitar, upright bass, and drums. Not traditional jazz, of course. Very loud jazz. Jazz with power chords and unexpected bursts of aggression. The Locust followed. They are a very heavy, screaming, ear bleeding experience. I'm not a huge fan of hardcore music, but they won me over. They made the noise interesting. They also had a keyboard player, which I haven't seen in a hardcore band before. It looked like he had genuine analog synthesizer on stage, probably a Moog. A big black box with lights and plugs that actually needed to be rearranged between songs to produce bizarre ambient noises.
And of course, Fantomas. Sigh... I loves the Fantomas. They continue to be unlike anything I've ever heard before. One of the aspects I like about Fantomas is their (I keep saying their, but Mike Patton is responsible for writing everything) ability to convey humor through music without any lyrics. The twists and turns that the flow of sound takes are so bizarre, with each change-up seeming to comment on what came before, it just makes me laugh.
Can I take a little more music? Melt Banana is playing here at the Satellite Ballroom tomorrow night. I'm not a huge fan, but how often does an internationally known JapaNoise band play in Charlottesville? I saw them open for Mr. Bungle in 1995 or so. It was a harrowing experience. One that I'm willing to repeat. Charlottesville is the first stop on a large USA tour, I think I might reward them for that choice. Anybody interested in listening to a Japanese girl shriek and warble over the din of a precise, but cacophonous rock band that at times sounds like a garbage truck driving over a cliff? You know you want to. I think doors are at 8pm tomorrow. There are two opening bands with whom I am not familiar.
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no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 08:31 pm (UTC)Melt Banana: I've been hearing things about them for years, and I've yet to actually HEAR anything. If I were still in town, I'd go with ya. Have fun!
no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 08:40 pm (UTC)Looks like they're playing here again on April 21. I'll mark my calendar. I see Aquanett is playing the 16th, for my hair metal fix.
hrm...
Date: 2005-04-11 11:40 pm (UTC)that sounds like a Korg MS-20 to me.
Re: hrm...
Date: 2005-04-12 06:45 am (UTC)It's the BIG box I couldn't identify. We're talking vintage lovely stuffs along these lines:
http://www.moogmusic.com/pictures/moogstudio.jpg
Re: hrm...
Date: 2005-04-12 06:46 am (UTC)Re: hrm...
Date: 2005-04-12 11:24 am (UTC)i think the concept that seems most likely is that he was using a moog (or likely a newer, more reliable) modular system with the moog controler out front as to show off the name. if the man really does own a moog modular, i can't imagine he'd want to travel with it. too old, too unstable, and too valuable. modular synths are certainly coming back into fashion, and by their nature any control with CV could be used.
"minimoog" is not a type of synth, per se, like a reference to a moog keyboard that is small - it's a specific model that does not have a patchbay. as far as i can remember, there is no small moog with a patchbay, the korg MS series are the only one's that i can think of off the top of my head. while there probably are more, the MS series are certainly the most widely used.
check out http://www.vintagesynth.org - they are an incredible resource of info about all sorts of old school keyboards and newer synths in the vintage style. i can waste hours there.
Re: hrm...
Date: 2005-04-12 02:34 pm (UTC)I read a review someone posted online about The Locust. The reviewer didn't mention specifics, but he noticed that a lot of their equipment (he did specifically mention guitar pedals, but not which ones) were vintage. He said The Locust's gear would be more valuable than their own lives.
Re: hrm...
Date: 2005-04-12 02:38 pm (UTC)so, looking at it that way, it kind of makes sense that the Locust would use them. heheheh
i bet they've got some *very* expensive road cases.
Re: hrm...
Date: 2005-04-12 10:04 am (UTC)sounds interesting. must've been using a combo of different things.
Re: hrm...
Date: 2005-04-12 04:28 pm (UTC)Interviews with Joey Karam seem to indicate that he favors vintage synth. Whether he's using actual vintage stuff or simply has retro style gear is another story.
Re: hrm...
Date: 2005-04-12 04:33 pm (UTC)the moogerfooger stuff is awesome. one of the keys to the classic "moog" sound is the filter, and now you can buy that in a moogerfooger pedal. when Soft Cell reunited, Dave Ball had one for each keyboard in his touring rig. Amazing.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-12 06:00 am (UTC)