Saturday, July 30, 2005
RLE Recordings Live Actions 002
McKinley Foundation Westminster Hall
Champaign, IL
Mark Solotroff
Climax Denial
Pitstain
Wilt
Silvum
Thanks to Nick for getting this thing set up so quickly and for the great hospitality. Nick is a man of extremes. With him, hot equals boiling hot and cold equals freezing cold. Nick also had blood and hair in his bathroom sink. Something may have died there. Had I had more time, I would have combed his place for more evidence. I was too busy DJing. Sorry. The Silvum set was definitely more intense than the one that I saw/heard in February. There were some really gritty tones in the air. No notations were made, though. Damn. I am definitely looking forward to digging into these Silvum CDs. Wilt also turned in a heavier and more dynamic set than at the February show. James and Dan brought on an intense improvisation that filled the room really nicely. Oh, and Mr. Keeler seems to be from a place called Sadorus! Holy shit, what a name. Thanks go to James and Alex for letting me jump in on their tour stop. The Pitstain and Climax Denial sets were both great. James has some curious wardrobe elements to go with his destroyed funky beats (early Esplendor Geometrico fans might want to take note), while Alex delivered another great hunk of junk noise power-electronics, building on his July 3 show here in Chicago. Go see these guys on tour if you can and support Milwaukee electronics. Thanks also to them for the new cassettes. As for my performance, I could tell right away that my sound was not at all right, and in my frustration of trying to sort everything out, I neglected to deliver on the "in your face" act that I had hoped for. I did get some really positive feedback about the set being "intense" and "emotional," and the MiniDisc recording that I made came out really well. Alex came up with a funny quip about "Edward Microphonehands." Thanks also to Eamon, for the awesome support ALL DAMN YEAR (sorry to have doubted your sage parking knowledge), to Chris and to Nick's brother (name? sorry) for the help with set-up, etc., Shane Tappa from Milwaukee, who I have already seen in Brooklyn, Chicago, and Detroit, this year, and to the other hardy souls who came out to church on Saturday night. Westminster Hall was definitely a cool space to play. There was much more ambiance than there was in the basement, and it is right next to the pre-school and kindergarten classrooms. How convenient is that?!?
