astro played one of the best psych-noise sets i've ever seen, and that's no bullshit. 40 minutes of pure analog synth assault, oscillators and tone generators and effects. this is what i wanted from cluster. we ended up getting 20 people out on a monday for this, which was amazing and encouraging for the dc experimental scene. everybody was entranced, even the grindcore kids. i'm so glad i asked hiroshi to take the chinatown bus here.
not only that, keitzer was awesome, too, easily the best grind i've seen in ages. they were monstrous and tight, like a jackhammer in the skull. overall, an unexpected but powerful one-two punch to the senses.
listening to the c.c.c.c. "early works" set right now. this is some intense, revolutionary noise.
I agree for the most part. KFW was amazing; wish his set was 2x longer. Cluster was essentially what I expected. I love the cluster '71 stuff so no complaints here. Completely agree on Susan Alcorn too. Axolotl was cut ridiculously short which was lame. It took me a little while to warm up to Eric Copeland but I ended up enjoying his set too. It was the second time I'd seen Tickly Feather and again, she reminded me way too much of Beach House. It's just that Beach House are 10x better which isn't saying much since they're abysmal live. The rest was fairly hit-or-miss. Afternoon Penis started slow but got a lot better towards the end. Blues Control were decent. And the first two acts did nothing for me.
Edit: And what happened to Dan Higgs? I was a little bummed that he got cut seeing as I missed him at the velvet.[/b]
i don't know what happened to higgs. i saw him leave in a hurry with asa. seems like there's some sort of emergency situation going on. higgs canceled on me two weeks ago but didn't specify why. he's not the kind of person to bail out on shows without a good reason.
my take on the acts on sunday:
susan alcorn: beautiful, impressionistic music. her vocabulary on the pedal steel is incredible. she kept me hanging on every note, sort of like the way charalambides does.
afternoon penis: good, enjoyable set. i like nate's ideas, but i think he needs to take it to the next level. which will hopefully come soon, as he plays solo more often.
tickley feather: i like her split 7" with bermuda triangle more than what i heard live, though the sound sucked, to be fair. she needs to improve her live set, which will come with more experience; right now, she isn't quite on the level of nora keyes or madame p or any other cabaret-esque female singer.
cluster: a slight disappointment. they were pretty mellow and ambient and a bit too digital, hovering too close to the new age side of things at times. the last five minutes of the first piece sounded great, with the electric piano. i was hoping for more 1971 kluster than 1976 cluster, but my expectations were high. still nice to see a krautrock legend at work. i saw michael rother and roedelius in 1998 and that was better.
blues control: not as good as at my house in august, but decent. i like the dronier synthy stuff more than the guitaring. russ' tone just sounds like ass. not sure if the hype they are getting recently is warranted, but they are great people and i love them so i hope they don't read this.
keith fullerton whitman: easily the best performance of the day. keith's analog synth is a beast, and his set sounded remarkably similar to those late '60s subotnick records. this was also more of what i wanted to hear from cluster, though maybe not quite so harsh.
axolotl: i have to say that i thought this kind of sucked. it sounded like a pale version of 1997 berlin/cologne minimal techno (i.e. burger/ink, the modernist, pole, etc). i've liked every axolotl set i've seen but this one. thankfully, it was only 10-12 minutes long. then again, but something better might have developed if he kept going. karl needs to pick up the violin again.
eric copeland: wasn't too impressed by this, but it wasn't terrible. he kept the loops going which allowed no development for dynamics, but the loops were at least wacked out enough for it to be interesting.
overall, two great sets, one good but underwhelming legend set, one awful set, and four mediocre-to-good sets. overall, a great time but musically a little left to be desired.
