Oxford life. Thirtysomething challenges. Music leanings. Anything really.
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Gig frenzy finale
How better to end this period of gig-heavy nights out with a 160 mile round-trip to Bristol to see Melt Banana.
Why go so far? So I could see the band with Rob, my Extreme Gig soul buddy. The last band we saw together was Atari Teenage Riot, some seven or so years ago.
It could be a trend, then - only go see the frantic leftfield edges of rock music with Rob. No idea who the next band on our list could be...
Melt Banana lived up to around nine years' worth of expectation - fast, frenetic, technically brilliant, led by a beautiful woman, and relentlessly loud.
The Wierd Prize tonight went to the support. Not the first band, who were shoddy to the max - I've never seen Death Prog performed before, but if it is a genre that has legs, get Napalm Death to jam with Yes, not this bunch of talentless losers.
No, it was the second support "band" that did it. Portly guy walks on stage, and proceeds to squeeze a whole tube of unidentified goo into his mouth.
He then picks up a huge shard of glass, about twice the size of two dustbin lids. On it is some sort of electrical pick-up thingy.
Portly chap jams his mouth against the flat plane of the glass and somehow gets the craziest noise from the glass - a mix of blowing, jabbing with fingers, smearing, chattering, and flicking. It's all fed through his laptop, and creates a swirling wall of white noise.
Despite the madness of this instrument, it's a fine noise.
He's playing a shard of glass. Glass isn't strong, and over the five minute set, it splinters, smashes and disintegrates, into the fella's mouth, across his cheeks, and on his head. By the end, there's plenty of blood, very little glass in his hands, and a crowd of people aghast at what's going on.
Noise stops, man bows, walks off. No, I have no idea what it was about either, and I saw it.
Why go so far? So I could see the band with Rob, my Extreme Gig soul buddy. The last band we saw together was Atari Teenage Riot, some seven or so years ago.
It could be a trend, then - only go see the frantic leftfield edges of rock music with Rob. No idea who the next band on our list could be...
Melt Banana lived up to around nine years' worth of expectation - fast, frenetic, technically brilliant, led by a beautiful woman, and relentlessly loud.
The Wierd Prize tonight went to the support. Not the first band, who were shoddy to the max - I've never seen Death Prog performed before, but if it is a genre that has legs, get Napalm Death to jam with Yes, not this bunch of talentless losers.
No, it was the second support "band" that did it. Portly guy walks on stage, and proceeds to squeeze a whole tube of unidentified goo into his mouth.
He then picks up a huge shard of glass, about twice the size of two dustbin lids. On it is some sort of electrical pick-up thingy.
Portly chap jams his mouth against the flat plane of the glass and somehow gets the craziest noise from the glass - a mix of blowing, jabbing with fingers, smearing, chattering, and flicking. It's all fed through his laptop, and creates a swirling wall of white noise.
Despite the madness of this instrument, it's a fine noise.
He's playing a shard of glass. Glass isn't strong, and over the five minute set, it splinters, smashes and disintegrates, into the fella's mouth, across his cheeks, and on his head. By the end, there's plenty of blood, very little glass in his hands, and a crowd of people aghast at what's going on.
Noise stops, man bows, walks off. No, I have no idea what it was about either, and I saw it.
// posted by Andy @ 1:20 am 
