executive summary: amazing music tonight, the enjoyment of which was pretty much ruined by the sound system.
way-too-long version:
we collectively psyched ourselves out about getting there before doors opened... i walked in at 9:10, and there were maybe 5 other people in the bar. nice to finally meet ms. moritz and jaguar. spent most of the evening with julian, miss p, and her associated roller-derby hangers-on.
luxa kicked things off around 10:45 - the bands were having issues during soundcheck, more on that in a minute. i really liked what luxa played, the edge-type delayed guitar over laptop-driven beat and pads for the most part. the third song that they tried playing had some Kid A/Amnesiac-type glitchy goodness as the backing track, but the band couldn't lock in - the monitor mix was horrible, so they stopped everything and made some mix change requests to the sound guy (not the first ones, mind your). whoever was doing sound seemed unable to do much, their second attempt at the song was abandoned as well. their fourth song started off real nice... but a minute in, 2 of the four people on stage threw down their instrument and gave up. apparently everything was coming through distorted to the point of being incomprehensible. the remaining two members tried valiantly to finish the song, but they eventually apologized and called it a night a few minutes later. bummer, 'cause i was really digging their music.
auburn lull and screen vinyl image was more of the same, although they both soldiered on and finished their sets. AL started out a little stronger than they finished. SVI was an amorphous but blissful sonic wash, the drummer (the only one of the night) was quite impressive. some of their music had a sigur ros'ish quality to it.
ulrich schnauss' set was beautiful. not quite sure how to describe it, he did quite a bit of genre jumping. IDM? neo-tangerine dream? electro dream-gaze? yes, i'm dancing for architecture here. but again, the sound was impeding on my ability to enjoy the show. the volume at this point was ear-splitting. luckily my faithful etymotics cut down some of the high-end distortion. more than one person left the room because it was too grating on the ears - and it wasn't thrash metal that was coming out of the PA, it was dreamy soundscapes. ulrich suffered from what i've christened "the velvet curse". because things ran so late, the crowd started to thin out before the headliner took the stage. he went on at 1:45, hard to expect 100% participation at the end of a work-week. ear-drum-piercing sound didn't help. buy the end of his set, around 2:30-2:40, the room was about a third full.
i really enjoyed all the music that was on offer tonight, or at least what versions of it made it past the PA. i'd definitely go see any one of these bands again. they did a test after ulrich left the stage, and the left speaker was shot. sound-man probably had to compensate by cranking up the right side all night long... = distortion. everyone has good nights and bad nights... unfortunately this wasn't a good one for the velvet's PA.
i sincerely hope we get a chance to hear these bands again. thanks for bringing them to DC, snailhook!
