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Date: Fri 15 Jun, 2001 at 03:30
Headline: A Tale Of Two Gigs
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Greetings and Salutations!
 Well, at least they didn't hurl bottles at us...
The gig at YaButs last night went far better than I
expected, despite the fact that we practically cleared the room after 3
songs. After checking out the web site for Dead Bodies
Everywhere I was expecting a less than friendly reception (as I
remarked on stage last night, "I feel like Manilow up here compared to
those guys"), but rather than turn on us at the sound of a song with an
actual melody, most of the people who were there to see their grindcore
heroes just politely excused themselves when the relatively dulcet tones
of 'Atmosphere' came wafting through the room. Perhaps we should have
lobbied for an earlier time slot.
DBE was loud as hell itself, controlled chaos
performed with megatons of energy. Not my cup of tea, musically speaking,
but I have to admire their passion. Same goes for Bright
Light, who came off essentially as a junior version of
DBE (teenagers, all of them; clearly smuggled in and out of the club), and were in fact a little tighter in the rhythm
section and had more creative fill-ins between the thunderclaps. I caught
the guitarist playing 'Earache My Eye' at soundcheck...how cool is that
for a 16 year old?
So...the idea of our music appealing to a crowd like
DBE's at a club like YaButs doesn't seem
to be unlikely, as such, but more a sort of mismatching of
concepts...like the JFK assasination sending
out for pizza. Nevertheless, a few folks did stick it out, and of course we
had a few friends there to cheer us on, as we're finding to be increasingly the
case. :)
We played a short 50 minute set, and it was probably our loosest
performance yet, but also one of the most fun. Tightly arranged sections
of songs became jams. Relatively straight-ahead pop songs became
anthems of over-the-top heavyness. Drum solos burst spontaneously forth
for no discernable reason. Every song contained "Rock Ending #1",
the usual cliched single chord hold for as
long as humanly possible before the sting...we do it occasionally anyway,
but not usually with this much Spinal Tap-esque exaggeration. I guess you
could say the humour of the situation imposed itself upon us, and we reacted
accordingly.
In contrast to that, the Milla's gig last Saturday was
about as close to ideal as we've come so far. We did our own sound,
played a full show wth no technical boundaries. We played our music the
way we want it to be heard, and the coolest thing of all...we had an
audience present who really seemed to dig it, even those who had no
idea who we were when they walked in the door. There are still rough spots
to be ironed out, but I think we've grown by leaps and bounds in the past
month, and I can't wait to see what's coming next.
Well, if there is no law about how long these little treatises can get,
there should be.
Gotta run...
your humble correspondent
Thom Bowers
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