Some thoughts on the concert I saw this very eve:

Kouhei Matsanugi - Yeah, I remember when this was called "me fucking around with a drum machine and a delay pedal."

Emil Beaulieau - He will die sooner than I will, probably, and this gives me comfort. Enough said. Except this: if he is ever on a bill you are seeing, just start punching him as soon as he starts playing. This will save time.

Lee Ranaldo / Jim O'Rourke / Carlos Giffoni - What is it about (most of) Lee's noise-improv performances that's just better than almost everyone else's? Is it the people he chooses to work with, or is it just his guitar, and the fact that he's an absolute master of the instrument? I don't know, but I would defend this statement pretty vigorously regardless, and this performance was head-and-shoulders above the other dronemongers on the bill.

Wolf Eyes - Bullshit. Total, utter bullshit. I'm glad you guys make your own instruments (although this "making" appears to be merely the clever linking of various old outboard gear, in which case I'm Richard D. fucking James), but could you learn something about making your own music sometime? Like, making it not boring? Critic-type people, you need to stop being impressed just because folks are from the midwest (it's not Brooklyn, OK, but it's not like these people are Tuvans or something) and because they bang their heads vigorously for no discernable reason. Good job looking serious and "scary," guys, but I did, in fact, fall asleep amidst your 30 decibels of noise. Whilst standing up.

Lightning Bolt - They set up in the corner of the venue during the end of the Wolf Eyes set (note to self: acquire own sound system) and began playing shortly afterwards, everyone having surged over there. In short, they were goddamn awesome, despite some technical problems, which were probably exacerbated by the mob of people with no particular barrier between them and the instruments. The new song about George Bush sounded pretty damn good, all things considered.

In long: I moshed. Do I usually mosh? Well, no, but on the other hand I don't really go to the kind of shows where one moshes. (Also, I use the pronoun "one" in sentences, even when speaking.) Sure, I've moshed in the past; the ones that spring to mind most readily are from when I was a teen, moshing at a Reverend Horton Heat concert, and from an Elastica concert in London, which was funny because I am 6'2" 200 lbs. and the other people were British, so I less moshed and more stood there while they bounced off me.

But I moshed tonight; as we in the front-left were pushed towards the band and tried to get an opportunity to actually see them, some serious moshing started. No doubt kids who take Ian MacKaye more seriously than Ian takes himself would say this moshing is just lame since I'm not into the moshing scene and I was just play-acting at hardcore, and while my moshing was lame in a physical sense--I'm 24 and I have a cold--the whole point of my musical philosophy is that sometimes I'm in the mood to mosh, and sometimes I'm not, and it's nice that I can appreciate music that's appropriate for each. Tonight, it was good to get out some aggression, so mosh I did.

At any rate, Lightning Bolt were very good and moshing is fun, sometimes, although not as fun as dancing.
posted by Mike B. at 3:48 AM 1 comments