Actually went to a show!

In what I hope is a sign of things to come Kara and I went out to see live music on Wednesday night. We even got so caught up in the freshness of the whole thing that we went and had a beer at The Lakewood Landing afterword. A friend of ours named Aaron(sp?) lives at a former church that has been converted to a residence and studio with a few others. It's a really nice space with an informal, but in no way approaching disgusting, feel. Unlike so many other similar ventures it was clean, and though there was a keg, people were polite and only reasonably rowdy even responding to a request for silence during a very quiet segment of one performance.

The line up was as follows: Wanz Dover's Wild Bull Electronic Experiment, Yells at Eels(Mutant Jazz Family), and an improvisational duo whose name escapes me. Wanz's performance was well-done and intriguing but ultimately not my cup of tea. While I enjoyed the more experimental bits, I was turned off by the segments with typical dance/techno beats. From what I could see he was operating a p.c., mixers of various types, sample pads of some kind, and other electronic thingamajiggys. I've seen his main band The Falcon Project once, and I really liked them. Yells at Eels is comprised of Stefan on drums , Aaron(sp?) on elecric bass, and their father whose name escapes me on trumpet. I guess I need to carry a note pad around with me if I'm going to be writing about these excursions. If I had to easily describe their sound I would say free-jazz, with a prog-rock influence sprinkled with bursts of noise that have a punk energy to them.

Does that sound as silly as I think it does? Well, let me assure you that there is nothing silly about their music as they are all accomplished musicians and not only that, they sound great. I do have to say that Stefan is one of the best drummers I have seen in quite a while. He and his brother bring a slightly subversive element to the group as they have been around the punk/metal scene for years with their own two-piece hardcore band Acolyte. I'd probably be spewing a load of crap if I tried to descibe it any more than that since I'm more of an authority on the traditionally structured side of music, or pretty much anything that is generally comprised of guitars, drums, and/or keyboards, vocals, etc. I hesitate to call this pop, rock, blues, country, what-have-you.

I regret not seeing more than half the first song by ???????????????? , but Kara and I were getting restless and it takes a special mindset to listen to more free-form music than we did in one sitting. They were a two piece of Asian descent. (Why this is important I don't know. I think it helps you visualize the whole thing, and besides that I like that sentence.) She played the Cello, and he the drums, both in an unconventional manner. Most of the time I watched he had some various cymbals and drum sticks on top of the floor tom and was doing his best to make screeching sounds, cut through the head, or slice a finger off. And then he would let go with a blast of more traditional percussion that made me want to stick around to see what happened but that was it for us. I look forward to more shows at The Sanctuary Studio.