Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Mark Solotroff
12 November 2005
The Big Horse Lounge
Chicago
with:
Mammal
Charlie Draheim
Walter Carson
Thanks to Nicole, for setting this show up. Thanks to Marlene, for videotaping. Thanks to the Big Horse, for hosting the night. Thanks to everyone who showed up to support this event, including Grey Holger, Shane from Milwaukee, Slim from Cadaver in Drag (all the way from Lexington!), and the Gays in the Military dudes. Viki was absent and she was missed. Be well.
I got the night started with a quick multiple microphone vocal set. Not getting to do an actual sound check, I was not sure how the feedback thing would work, and I ended up keeping the big stage monitor lit up most of the time, as I think that I was driving more sound through it than through the actual PA speakers. It seemed okay, though. For the trainspotters, there were six primary microphones, plus I introduced an extra mic with an extra-long cord partway through the set. The theme was at least partially about “not losing… it.” The performance ran about ten and a half minutes long.
Walter Carson was up next, and he (Darrell) crouched down on stage with his back to the audience, while he built up a solid, noisy, droning set through a smallish guitar amp, bypassing the house system. I only wish that it had been louder. Chuck D. was up next, and I swear to god he played one of my favorite noise-related sets ever. One word: swagger. Either you’ve got it, or you don’t, and on Saturday, Charlie was oozing with it. On stage, standing upright, facing the crowd, dragging off a cigarette, playing different gear from what I have seen in the past (which was set up in a case on a table), totally in command. Fucking genius. Gary wrapped things up with yet another utterly severe Mammal set. Harsh, pounding, and bleak. It was a really great show to be a part of.
We moved on to a small gathering at Nicole’s, which evolved into a loud, late-night basement jam. After burning out on that, we demanded food (thanks for the cous-cous, Nicole), and ultimately some of us ended up down on Maxwell Street, on a mission for eyeball tacos. Isidro met up with us, but the head-meat vendor was not set up. We ended up at a place that was making delicious fresh tortillas, filling them with tasty ingredients like huitlacoche (corn mold, or smut), cactus, hongo (mushrooms, not athlete’s foot), pork mole, etc. Shane got lost (but later, found), I grabbed a box of 40 avocados for $6.00, and that was that.
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BLOODYMINDED
11 NOVEMBER 2005
The Studio
Chicago
with:
Means to an End
01. “LAKE STREET”
02. “A SONG FOR LISANNE, A YOUNG MODEL”
03. “ANGEL OF DARKNESS”
04. “MIND THE GAP”
05. “PRO-ANA”
06. “PRO-MIA”
07. “AS IF”
08. “TROPHY”
09. “GENITAL PANIC”
10. “YOU SUFFER” (NAPALM DEATH)
11. “BECOMING AN ANIMAL”
12. “CHALK EATER”
13. “TEN SUICIDES”
14. “PORN LORDS”
BLOODYMINDED
Rob “Misfits Robby” Kerr - Synth
Ed Knigge - Synth + Vocals
Isidro Reyes - Synth
Mark Solotroff - Vocals + Synth
Thanks to everyone at The Studio and at Red Rose Productions (Mike, Annie, etc.), for being open-minded enough to ask us up there in the first place. Thanks also to Mike for pushing the volume so far that we knocked out the PA early in our set! Thanks to Means to an End for the heavy metalcore set that followed us. Thanks to Rob, for stepping in at the last minute for Chris. Welcome aboard! The Studio is a cool, small, storefront room, with a solid PA system. Two other bands ultimately ended up as no-shows, so it was a fairly short night for the modest audience that turned up. We contributed nothing to the crowd, which was totally embarrassing for a first (and probably only) show at a new spot. That said, we tried to belt out a fast and hard set, which we seemed to do. We already know that it was loud, and the feedback was really strong. All in all, I was happy to try something at a new venue, in front of a different audience, all outside of the noise, or whatever, realm. The set lasted for about 19 minutes, but take into consideration that not much more than three minutes into the set, the PA went down for about three minutes, so we will call it 16 minutes long...
