October 23, 2007
By Alex V. Cook
Iggy Pop sneered this sentiment in "Search and Destroy" back in 1973, but it applies just as well to my past week spent courting tinnitus and experiencing the full sensory application of amplification of the human spirit. One of my favorite live acts of last year, Caribou returned to the Spanish Moon stage even tighter and more transcendent. As a hyperkinetic screen-saver of a film swirled behind them, the band worked an intoxicating groove of double drumkits, guitar, bass, even melodica at one point. I can get very caught up on how organic music is, how I like there to be little separation between instrument, musician and audience, but all that is just talk when you see a band who can really use all that horsepower.
Speaking of horsepower, the Boris show on the same stage was as much felt as it was heard. The Japanese power-trio takes various basic styles of music, be it ambient drones, sludge metal or tranquil psychedelia and run it through their phalanx of amps to such an amazing degree that the building and the audience are physical resonators of the music. It was a beautiful thing, thanks to the earplugs graciously provided by the bartender. I tried to joke with a friend, "I wonder what Boris Unplugged would be like." But of course, he couldn't hear what I was saying. Almost all memory of Damon and Naomi's delicate, serene opening set was erased like a tape dropped on a Wile E. Coyote-style electromagnet. I felt my self-nodding out at one point with the constant barrage of vibrations serving as the best massage I've had in ages. Maybe next time I have a bout of insomnia, I should seek out an Orange double stack cranked to 110 rather than a fistful Tylenol PM.
Required Listening for the Week: It's an eclectic choice for adventurous listeners, but Robert Wyatt's Comicopera is a multifaceted, simultaneously fragile and powerful suite of material from this most curious of songwriters, weaving jazz, politics, pop, folk and experimentation into a strange but appealing tapestry.
Wednesday, Oct. 24:
And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead and Bones at Spanish Moon
Mike Foster project at Chelsea's
Bloodjinm, The Classic Struggle, Catalepsy, the Demonstration, Wake into the Nightmare, Belay My last and Autumn Black at The Darkroom
Thursday, Oct. 25:
Poncho Sanchez plays two shows at the Manship Theatre
Dax Riggs (of Deadboy and The Elephantmen) at Chelsea's
Say Hi to Your Mom, The Velvet Teen and A Sides at Red Star
The Highlines and Luke Starkiller at Click's
Friday, Oct. 26:
Georgie James and Le Loup at Spanish Moon
Hobes at Chelsea's
Bravo Charlie and Manchac at North Gate Tavern
Revibe + Level Ground at Click's
Under a Burning Sky, Collaspe the Memory, My Doppelganger's Casket and Awaiting Trial at The Darkroom
John Mooney at Phil Brady's
Lil Ray Neal at Teddy's Juke Joint
Saturday, Oct. 27:
Suicide Holiday, Fister, Peckernut, Axes of Evil, Spikes Driven, tWYRIO at North Gate Tavern
Echelon and Black Market Halos at Click's
Vendetta, Crimson Mindset, Once Sacred and At Nightmare's End at The Darkroom
Bryan Lee at Teddy's Juke Joint
Monday, Oct. 29:
Anita, The Flood Memoirs, and Evangelina at North Gate Tavern
MUSHROOMHEAD, Psyclon Nine, Marazene, Baghead and I Decay at Click's
Tuesday, Oct. 30:
DJ Vadim at Spanish Moon
Dirty Money and Western Front at North Gate Tavern
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