I think Ms. Potts and myself were the only [313]ers in attendance, so I'll try and give a rundown, although not strictly [313]. The first night was held in an art gallery. I use that term loosely, as it was a loft in the middle of Baltimore on the 3rd floor with a really unusual elevator.
It was interesting. Clearly the organizers segmented the nights by feel. Friday was extremely experimental, Saturday pumped up the bass. A good example of the vibe was when Richard Chartier played and asked for silence. His music is extremely minimal (in the Mille Plateux sense), incorporating silence at seemingly long intervals at times, and perhaps better suited to the headphones. But the crowd reaction when he was done was proof positive that obscure live shows need a home, even if in odd conditions. Chris Sattinger followed as Timblind, doing some really crazy Max/MSP f*ckery that rounded out the evening well. Everyone really enjoyed his set. I'm not too familiar with the earlier performers, but the vibe of the whole night was very positive, despite the challenging nature of the music. This was really surprising and encouraging. I really think the indie rock to electronic music tie needs to be stregthened more. There's a mass of open-minded listeners out there waiting for exposure to interesting techno. Thrill Jockey and Matador have solidified this bond. Saturday, I arrived @ Ottobar just as "Diskette" booted up. Wow! IDM fans keep an ear tuned to the oncetwice label for his full-length. You won't be dissapointed. "While" followed with a very melodic, almost MBV meets Takemura style. Excellent stuff! I'd never seen Cex before, despite being so near to his home in Baltimore. This set was *very* unusual, even for him. We knew something was up when he sat down and lowered the mic next his laptop. He started with a 5-minute speech explaining that he'd played at Ottobar just on Tuesday, and had a hectic live performance schedule for the last month leading up to oncetwice, so he was going to do something different. And different it was. He played some music very low in the background while reading two short stories he'd written - one about 9/11 and the other about a woman who keeps a journal. He prefaced all of this by explaining how he tries his best to do a show that risks him feeling like he was dead, and if he's not doing that, it isn't worth it - forgive the paraphrasing. I wish there was a transcript of what he said somewhere, b/c it was off-the-cuff, but brilliant. The stories were nuts, but fun, mostly about flying buildings, and really unique for a live show. He finished off by making weird faces as he raised the volume on the last song and tweeked for a while. Fun!!! Tomas Jirku played a really diverse glitchy techno/house set that got the crowd out of their laptop-watching daze. Safety Scissors followed with lots of mock-German vocals over his typical click'&cuttery, and then Sutekh finished things off with a building click&cuts into techno set. It was all very nice, and by the end of Tomas's set,the dancefloor was sold. There wasn't a moment I wasn't happy to be there on either day. I can't wait for the follow-up in DC tomorrow. Tristan ------------------- Upcoming Gigs: 4/14/02 - Filler @ Blue Room, Adams Morgan, DC http://www.mp313.com <- Music http://www.metrotechno.net <- DC techno + more http://www.metatrackstudios.com <- DC DJ/Production studios http://phonopsia.tripod.com <- Hub [EMAIL PROTECTED] <- email --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
