BLOODYMINDED
29 Aug 08
Enemy
Chicago, IL
with:
Consumer Electronics
Locrian
Neil Jendon
Peter Sotos (video)
BLOODYMINDED
Heber B.: Synth
James Moy: Synth + Mix + Vocals
Isidro Reyes: Synth + Vocals
Mark Solotroff: Vocals + Electronics
01. TROPHY
02. WEST
03. MOONWALKER
04. GRUDGE (ONE)
05. ANGEL OF DARKNESS
06. PHASES : FOUR
07. A SONG FOR LISANNE, A YOUNG MODEL
08. MIND THE GAP
09. PRO-ANA
10. TWO DROPS OF BLOOD
11. VISITING AN EX-GIRLFRIEND IN THE HOSPITAL – AIDS WARD
12. WITHIN THE WALLS
What a great night! A nice full house with an enthusiastic, if a bit heat-weary audience. We started out the evening with one of Pete's videos, to set a certain "tone," I suppose. Maybe that was why the crowd was a bit low energy, at first. It was by no means upbeat stuff. A "Buyer's Market" for the ears and the eyes. Well, it got me "in the mood," for sure, even if I felt a bit slow motion for a bit. It was cool to have Heber in the mix... seriously creepy presence lurking back in the shadows, as I just saw in the (unfortunately glitched-out) video. Really cool shadows were cast on the south wall from the halogen lamp. Some day, I promise, I will learn every god damned word to "Moonwalker," but I did okay with it. Listening to the (also glitch-ridden) MiniDisc recording, we seemed to have a really nice balance between the three synths and the vocals. "PHASES : FOUR" sounds totally solid as I hear it playing in the background, and I have been enjoying doing that song in the last few shows. All in all, a relatively quick, solid performance. Not a mind-blower, but I was extremely pleased with our set. For brevity's sake, we skipped the Death Cab For Cutie cover... maybe next time? It was our first time under the 20-minute mark, in a while, and that felt good, too.
Neil Jendon was up next and he played an awesome modular synth set. I have been listening to the master for his upcoming BloodLust! release, a lot, this week, so I was totally primed for exactly what he delivered. The sound was excellent and it was like watching a master craftsman at work, too.
Locrian followed and the played a much different sounding set compared to when Animal Law played with them last month. Maybe to go with the night, their sound had a much stronger synth aspect to it, not that Andre's guitars weren't a focal point, but maybe he played more texture and less "shred"... I'm not sure. And then there were Terence's intense howling vocals! Jesus christ!!
Consumer Electronics capped of the night, and as I sat in on synth, I can only give my perspective from behind Philip... but fucking hell, he really let loose with such a intense tirade of rapid fire vocals! The MiniDisc - thankfully - captured the set perfectly, and I think that the mix/sound was pretty on-the-money. I did my best to keep Philip's vocals upfront and clean - and it seemed that they only got tangled in feedback for brief moments here and there. I liked the balance between the distictive digital sounds coming from Philip's laptop and the analog synth+delay that I added to the mix. I will definitely be curious to hear what people thought of the set.
Thanks to Enemy, for hosting; thanks to Jon Satrom, for use of the video projector; thanks to Marlene and Ben, for videotaping; thanks to everyone who showed up. It was great to see such a mix of new and old friends really come out to support this show!
And no concrete decisions yet on necessary fate...
