Three Criminally
Slept-On Shows
Even Thom Yorke is caning Seattle ambient producer the Sight
Below these days (check out the January 6 entry on radiohead.com/deadairspace), so
despite Rainpocalypse 2009, I thought there’d be a decent
turnout to last Thursday night’s showcase of local talent at Nectar,
starring the Sight Below, Lusine, and electro-funk engineer
Caro. It ended up being a small but highly energetic crowd, with a
dedicated dance floor going strong through Caro’s typically winning
one-man show, Lusine’s beat-heavy set of much new material, and on
until last call and lights on. The Sight Below was dreamy and distant
as always, washes of processed guitar tone fading in and out,
muffled pulse beating as though from within a womb full of amniotic
fluid. He played in front of the same
projections—slow-motion, monochromatic film loops—as he did
at Decibel 2008, and in fact he may have played the exact same set, but
it sounded just fine.
I didn’t think Chop Suey would be super packed for Free Blood on Sunday, and I was right, though again it was a good group that did
show up. Sunday night is a tough night for a dance party, and Free
Blood, despite the DFA affiliation, the touring with Hot
Chip, and the ex-member of !!!, just aren’t getting a ton of
shine out here (maybe KEXP could start playing them…). Too bad,
because they put on a fantastic live show. For this show, they played
as a four-piece, with John Pugh on guitar and keys as well as vocals,
him and totally arresting singer Madeline Davy backed up by live drums
and another guitarist. This arrangement reached a freaked-out
peak on “Grumpy,” which just erupted into feedback and searing
noise after its bridge, band members low to the floor, banging on
whatever they happened to have in their hands.
Linda and Ron’s Dad‘s set that same night at Neumos—a
release party for the latest Journal of Popular Noise, the
second or third time I’ve seen the band—just completely blew me
away. Tyler Swan and Derek Bourcier rocked the 808 drum machine and
samplers and turntable as always, but tonight they were playing along
to digital video Swan had shot on a recent trip to Vietnam, where he
was hunting for records and finding tons of GI-era Vietnamese soul
45s. The video was projected on a screen behind them, and the audio
was amplified into their set—the high-pitched, clipping digital
audio of moped traffic jams, karaoke, and chance musical encounters
giving the show a sort of Madlib/Beat Konducta musical-tourism vibe.
The superdeep bass from the 808 made the video skip on one song.
Bourcier played along on a homemade dan bau, a traditional
Vietnamese instrument with a single string attached to a long, flat
base and a vertical pole, which can be pulled to bend the notes plucked
out on the string, like the tremolo arm of a guitar. Specs One joined
them for a couple songs, and it’s kind of surprising that every MC in Seattle isn’t trying to get on Linda and
Ron’s Dad’s beats, because they are on to some seriously hot shit
here. 