Progress report:
- Monday... Travel day. Ran into some rather prurient characters at the Las Vegas airport. Made it home late that night, due to bad weather
- Tuesday... Back-to-back practices... a long day at the space... Isidro and I did good The Fortieth Day work, since I would not be there on Wednesday. Focus on Korg Monotron, plus his bass guitar and drum machine. Got some fresh air and then had an early and vigorous Anatomy of Habit practice... and as if my ears were not ringing enough, it was off to see Swans, who were simply POWERFUL. A fucking great show! Period. For now. And it was like a big, fun birthday party, or something, as nearly everyone I know in Chicago seemed to be there, let alone friends who were in from Milwaukee, Saint Louis, etc. I wonder what the canonization process is like???
- Wednesday... an early flight... lunch with Pieter... off to see Yakuza, 1349, and Triptykon at the Gramercy Theatre. Man...Bruce and crew have their work cut out for them on this tour! They displayed total power and confidence in the face of hesher lunkhead hell. I wish that I could be a fly on the wall for the duration. Their new songs sound great live, to boot! 1349 remain a bit generic for me, but it was amusing, and they had a couple of strong tracks. Triptykon were great. A logical continuation of what I saw/heard during Celtic Frost's "Monotheist" tour... with the added bonus of Tom Warrior actually giving a fuck and acting like he wanted to be on that stage. Cool to hear early CF songs in extended, muscular form. Fun to hang out with some ex-Empty Bottle folks there, along with Josh, Maheen, and Yuan. And then it was off to Wierd... just in time to see an excellent and packed set by Automelodi... new live line-up... really adding some strength and "grit" to the more pristine sound of the CD. Cool. A wonderful night there, as always. Great to walk into such a hug-wave session. Like a family reunion. Pre-Op Trans even got me out on the dancefloor. Very rare!
...Off to some abstract expressionist extravaganza, I think...
