2o december 2oo1
empty bottle, chicago, ill
strangulated beatoffs
spires that in the sunset rise
mark4
spectrums in the diabolique
prologue:
i walked in during the spectrums of the diabolique set, and still saw way too much of them... when will openers learn that more than 20 minutes is pushing it bigtime... they were just not up to the grade, mining a similar territory to the bands i saw at 3rd st. saloon in detroit in october (masks & all) but just not delivering das goods... next!
mark4 was the first electronic performance using gameboys i have seen or heard... i guess that is not such a rare commodity as i thought at the time, but it was a novelty to me... not overly attitudinal, spastically caucasion dance muziq... despite some equipment problems (maybe for the best, does the world really need more vocoders?) they put on a show that held my attention, starting out with a very kraftwerk sound, but successfully not running it into the ground by spitting distorted effects into later songs... good enough that i bought the little cd thing and grabbed a complimentary shirt for alexia...
spires that in the sunset rise was even better... being a yoko ono fan (go ahead, flame me, i can take it), their vocals seemed to come from a healthy tradition of vox as instrooment... lots of switching of instruments, variety of vox combinations, basic percussion, and scraping zithers with nearly inaudible guitar... the sweetnastee cello was ample evidence that brains were engaged... unfortunately, they had nary a tape or cdr in sight for me to plunder and review, but i be keeping mine eyes open for something to show up another day... recommended...
the main event:
[as originally posted in the skin graft records & comix yahoo club 22 december 2oo1]
yes, i was there...got my moneys worth...
lotsa andy kaufman-esque "what the hell was that a put-on or for real" going on...
guy handing out flyers during mark4:
"fritz noble is a very poor musician and a terrible drummer
mike doskocil is the only living god of rock and a far superior drummer to noble."
what!? more episodes of the stan/mike dwg feud by proxy?
guy (flyer guy? i didnt notice) received a drink in the face from stan or fritz and left in a cloud of threats of violence?
"that was worth the $7 right there" said a bystander.
i think you all have the idea what happened... teevee setup playing a vidloop of a black guy being beaten over and over and over until bobby conn or someone switched the channel...
some loops, a little keyboard playing, some belching and comments from stan or fritz:
"you like this? motherfuckers...etc.", sometimes being sampled & messed with briefly...
pool cue brandished semi-ominously...some amp noise as if a cord is being plugged & unplugged...
audience reactions... "we paid for your heroin, you fucks!" & requests for various singles... some loud applause... typical male rockshow "fucking a you rock!" stuff...someone onstage asks if anyone has a guitar?...
fritz and stan smoke cigarettes and taunt back...
for a few minutes then they say, thats the show...that's all we have...
maybe 15-20 minutes in all...
the question was: what did i think?
good question...well, if you take it as a scam, i was a principal mark...driving all that way & all...i am not angry...more puzzled...
i guess it was like an experiment in just how little (the least amount of effort to entertain) it is possible to do to encounter an audience and provoke them...and how much the audience will exert themselves to find some plausible rationale behind the performance...the crowd was definitely a participant... much yelling back & forth with the beatoffs...certainly a significant element of the "show"...
it seemed kinda good-natured, tho... i mean, stan & fritz were out talking to ppl afterwards... maybe getting some reaction? would seem to indicate it was not totally confrontational... as if they c a r e d what was thought...
i think anyone who was angered didn't do their homework... and the joke is on them...
~ r e b e l g r i s w o l d
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