Tuesday, January 17, 2006




Blake Edwards was kind enough to write, and forward, this review of Saturday's event:

1.14.06 @ enemy (Oscillating Innards, Bloodyminded, Climax Denial, Wilt, Is, Death Factory)

Props to everyone for getting so may bands to run so smoothly; at most there was 6 minutes Dj-ing between bands.

Death Factory started off with perhaps his strongest set I've seen—despite sampling heavily from The Prisoner in the beginning, the first ten minutes, a field day of distorted gurgling seizures and ice skating sparrows with barbed-wire wrapped wings really filled the space nicely. Things took a slight turn for the less interesting when the drum and guitar started up; pseudo-laibach-y chomp chomp chomp; had he kept at it with the snowstorm of TV static phasing about it would've been utterly solid.


Is knocked about a turntable, a metal pole, and a small coterie of pedals and in his efforts probably brought down one or two satellites. I'm sure the gals liked his tank top action in the middle of winter, but that and the strobe light were no distraction for those of us desiring to have our ears repositioned strategically in our lower intestinal tract. Regardless of his dashing moves, the boy needs a haircut. Herr Is performed solo (last time I saw him it was a duo) and this evening was a total abrasion fest punctuated by sine waves choking on the ashes of a porch fire. Thumbs up.

Wilt was up next and for the bulk of their set it was a low gurbbly drone with additional fuzz from the guiterror player. Intermittent explosions punctuated the sonorous auto wash of sound, and at one point some angry words were belted out although I can't say i understood exactly what was being screamed. The boys weren't exactly dynamic aurally, but they hit some good strides.

Climax Denial: in past times, I have not been moved by Climax Denial performances. This was a different kettle of fish—a lot looser and a lot less of the staples of "power electronics" were present—his introduction with a bird call signaled that easily enough. There were very few vocals but a lot of thrashing and crawling about as he struggled to be the hillside strangler of gear for the evening. His refined look (mountain man of today vs gangreen groupie of yore) also added a less "serious" and more entertaining feel to his set. Instead of raging against the injustices of a failed social life he decided to take whatever he wanted to take out on his gear, and it was a lovely earwash.

Bloodyminded: I've seen these boys way more than 10 fingers worth, and this was probably one of their better performances. Not only was the sound solid but the audience interplay also contributed—the kids like it, it feeds mark and co., and everyone has more that pleasant times as the high frequencies scan the ears like so many barcodes and the low end wraps around the ankles and yanks you down. Best comment probably came from climax denial when, after playing "in the mood," he requested they play it again: "But I'm still in the mood!"

Oscillating innards brought the car fender and floor full of pedals and the magic box of springs and e-bows and started off with groans like jigsaw carving an ice turkey; he was steering ears around the space and eventually collapsed push up style to scream into the magic box which resonated nicely among the springs and metals. Eventually the car backed over his leg and he set out some seriously disjointed airliner crashes, suitcases full of the finest china throws down a steel spiral staircase and landing in a bath of acid. A nicely delicious performance.

I will note two small additional items; I was theoretically "DJ-ing" between sets, but as my turntable connection had fallen through I was bouncing between two CD players, which is hardly as exciting. The high point, aside from Mark S. utterly despising my choice of playing the japanese version of "Jesus Christ Superstar" and Falco's "Der Kommisar" (vindication only came via Warsaw and the Exploited) was a group of like 7 guys actually singing/screaming along to Shellac's "Prayer to God."

sep/dis