a cold and warm front were colliding over detroit on this evening, and it was that time of the year where the ten degree drop can mark the difference between spring and winter. while it was the proper background for this type of music, trying to figure out the timing of the collision and how to navigate it caused me havoc all day. the shifting weather forecasts did not help much; i was trying to plan within the margin of error.
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the warm front seemed to linger a little longer than was forecast, which led me to overheat on the way to the show. i had planned to walk in single digit temperatures through a north wind and low humidity; i got double digit temperatures through a south wind and high humidity. had i worn any makeup, it would have melted off by the time i got there - so i at least made that choice correctly.
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dark red are a two piece drums/bass combo, but i want to stress that they weren't really what you'd expect with a drums/bass combo in 2016. the bass functioned as a guitar, but it was actually a very slow-moving kind of almost doom rock sound. and, he was able to get enough harmonic complexity out of the combination of things to give it a gazey feel. the culmination was a kind of grassroots grunge sound, in the way the term was initially constructed. this is going to be quite the acquired taste - at the end of the day, it really reduces largely to a very fuzzy bass throwing layered walls of distortion at you. so, i have to caveat it by saying that the idea is a little bit stale. but, if this is something you have a taste for, it was done fairly well. it's all in the tone, really, right - it doesn't really matter what else is happening, so long as you get a thick enough tone.
the stargazer lilies seem to be touring their new record, but they haven't released it yet. i'm only familiar with the first record, so i may have been tricked - they may have played older material i don't know. but, i think that around half the set was new material. the newer material seemed to be a little grittier, and a little less focused on melody - which is a shame, because that's what drew my attention to this disc. see, it's not much of a feat nowadays to string a rack of effects together and staccato out to nowhere; rather, the abundance of acts doing this since the early 90s has kind of blurred it all together into a stale cliche. time has just made the situation worse. it's become very formulaic and really rather boring. what's been lost in the rush to total atmosphere over musical content is that the genre was initially built on overlapping harmonies. whether you want to cite the cocteau twins or mbv or the cure or whatever else, this genre shines when it is music with counterpoint and harmonization and 13th chords and other fun things of the sort - and falls apart when it's just some more boring I-IV-V folk tones, run through a flanger or not. what pulled me into the record was the greater level of musical literacy. it's not just a wall of sound, it's a very musical wall of sound. the newer material seemed to take a step back from that in favour of generic shoegazer contrivances, but i'll withhold judgement until the record comes out.
that may come off harsher than intended. see, i wouldn't go out of my way to see sounds-like-every-other-sheogaze-band on a blicky march night. but, if i happened to find myself in front of one, i wouldn't complain about it either. i recognized about half the set, and enjoyed what i recognized more than what i didn't, but the truth is that the last record set a high bar. it was an enjoyable head cave, either way.
here is a full set:
the trip home was horrific. it initially seemed like i was making excellent time (the show was done before 11:00), but i ended up getting stuck at the bus stop with a horde of drunken frat boys on their way home from a hockey game. worse, the bus missed it's route (the driver claimed it got stuck in the tunnel, and i'm suspecting it had to do with increased security from the attacks in belgium). so, it turned into having to listen to these idiots throw homophobic slurs at each other for almost two hours.
they kept calling cabs down, and the cabs kept refusing to take them because they just wouldn't shut up. it's probably a lot of repressed homosexual desires, and i get that, but it's just really annoying to listen to. one minute, they're yelling at somebody to suck their cock; the next, they're calling each other faggots.
it's not as though i'm offended by the language - i don't care, really. it's more that i'm offended by the stupidity. when i find myself in these situations, i just want to snap my finger and have them cease to exist - or perhaps click my heels and transport home.
even worse is when they want to talk to you. everything is a competition, right, so they're constantly trying to start a debate and win it. it's never about the discussion. it's always about winning and losing. this one buffoon was unable to differentiate nihilism from atheism. if i didn't believe in god, i therefore couldn't believe in anything else. and, he just wouldn't drop the strawman. he had to win. so, you have to let him, to avoid losing brain cells in the resulting discussion - and then hope he goes away. thankfully, there was a beer waiting for him down the road.
then, they expected me to get into a cab with them. right. like i'm going to risk going through customs with these idiots. you can't just explain to the border guards that you took the cab with them but don't know them; that's not how that works. when they did finally leave, though, the serenity that followed was almost overwhelming.
getting from windsor to ann arbor and back to see tortoise was somewhat of an adventure, and the vlog really only tells a part of the story. so, i'm going to go ahead and start from the beginning.
===
i had decided before i went to bed that the racist bus system was going to stop me from seeing the show, but i dreamt of the suspension bridge at iguazu falls and woke up invigorated by the prospect. i decided that i would go if i could find a truck stop close to the drop off point - which i did find. so, i dirtied myself up a little, grabbed my knapsack and hit the road....
they had the dogs out at customs to sniff some greyhound passengers. the ridiculousness of the drug war was really apparent, at that point. just the absurdity of it, you know. it's one thing to get kids to watch some infomercials in grade school, it's another to send the canine unit out under threat of a term in a cage. that's a game i don't play. it's a fool's game; your opponent is not rational, not swayed by discourse. it's another layer of the hyperreal, but to poke at the surreal and hope it vanishes is better left to thought experiment than real life....
i caught the bus outside a federal building (overheard statement by a passing bureaucrat: "we control the department of health"); it was an hour and a half before it dropped me a mile from the I-275, which is the highway that i've identified to be the segregation line between detroit and the surrounding suburbs. it did not take long for a three-piece family to pick me up, and drop me at the bus station.
the car was full of bernie supporters, who were intrigued and a little unsettled by the canadian health care system. you can imagine it's a big thing, right. see, but that's exactly what i picked up: that it *is* a big thing. and, that's exactly what i tried to get across. see, in canada we just take our coverage for granted. we don't ever have to worry about losing our insurance. it's never up for debate: it's universal. and, universal means universal. it took a few tries, but i think that eventually got across - and when it did, a very comfortable pause set in.
but, what about the taxes? don't i get tired of taxes for everything? i was in the middle of explaining that i've never made enough money to pay health care taxes when the car pulled in, i thanked them kindly and i headed for the bus stop.
the bus from ypsilanti to ann arbor was another hour up washtenaw road, pulling into a detour through the university of michigan campus and eventually stopping at the city's central bus station. the good news was that i beat the sunset; the bad news was that i had three hours to blow before the show started.
===
after poking around the area, and determining that almost everywhere i could go within the range of my mental compass would require a reservation, i stopped at a restaurant that's fancier than anywhere i'd normally go to to get a beer and something to eat. i wanted a burger, but had to settle for some kind of salsa poutine and a greek salad.
"would you like bread while you're waiting?"
"listen. i hitchhiked here. i don't want to spend a lot of.."
"...it's free."
"ok. great."
i'm not ashamed of my lower class upbringing, or afraid to put it on display. but, i was afraid that i'd get one of those famous tiny plates that you get at fancy restaurants. twenty dollars for a leaf of lettuce, right? and that'll be ten dollars for a side of dressing, please. but, in fact, the two plates, together, were a relatively large meal. and, it came to no more than the price of an expensive sub - or perhaps the price of a burger.
two beers later, and i was out to see the show. but, i'll make sure to do a little more research on places to wait, pre-show, if i ever go back to ann arbor.
===
i was there right at doors, so the line-up was fairly short. but, the door guy was very reluctant to accept my id.
"you're 35?"
"yeah."
a skeptical glance.
"you look good for 35."
"it runs in the family..."
i'm actually used to this. in fact, i've been told more than once that my id is fake and i'm not getting in - past the age of 30. but, this would have been a distance to travel to get bounced. he motions to his buddy...
"is this real id? nexus card?"
"is it from canada?"
"yeah."
"it's good."
i saw the guy repeatedly over the night, as i came in and out. the skepticism on his face was palpable: no way this kid is 35. i'm only 32! if this kid is 35....
but, this kid *is* 35. sorry, dude. it's true.
===
i take a look at the beer menu. $1.75? score.
"what is this rolling rock?"
"it's just a watery beer."
"well, i'm from canada. it'll feel like home. i'll go with that."
i need to carry a pocket drum machine with me.
the beer went down quick, so i was out into the smoking section within a few minutes, where i bumped into somebody willing to share - which was useful for the first act.
====
mind over mirrors were a synthesizer act with an unusual light show. they played on the floor, surrounded by this bright, glowing orb. this gave it the feel of some kind of ritual. on the one hand. it was a lot of overdone tropes, right - the spiritual indigenous european thing, trying to bring out your inner druid by ripping on the froese brothers. on the other hand, this was exceptionally well put together in terms of the space it covered in the spectrum, if not in terms of melodic complexity. i happened to be stuck in front of somebody that wasn't enjoying it, and the argument was apparent - there were no melodies, and minimal percussion. it was just sound. but, when you get enough bass out of the speakers to make it feel like the walls are going to cave in? you're accomplishing something. but, it's something that you utterly have to *feel* in order to understand. so, footage of the show would be entirely pointless. this is experiential, and recommended if you get the chance, but i will reiterate that my detour into the smoking section was pretty fundamental in my enjoyment of the set.
this set is similar to what i saw:
tortoise did not need to clear the stage, so they started almost immediately; i barely had time to get a beer. how was the show? really?
i have to admit that the last tortoise record that i really sunk into was standards. i found that the 2004 record was very much following in the footsteps of do make say think, but without the tension - it lacked a concept of grit, and kind of floated by. i did listen to the 2009 disc for a few weeks when it came out, but got bored with it almost immediately and never went back to it - the truth is that it just couldn't compete for space in my mp3 player. and, i was walking into the show without having heard much of their new record at all. but, i am very much familiar with their three classic records - and was hoping to see a lot more material from them.
the truth is that i should have known better. it's largely a question of who the guitarist was. the magic on millions and tnt was all pajo; at this stage, the differences in style between pajo and parker are really absolutely apparent and it's obvious who did what. so, it's not really fair to anybody to show up to a tortoise show in 2016 with jeff parker on guitar and expect them to run through twenty year-old material that somebody else wrote. i should have thought that through a little more closely.
i can't claim the same familiarity with their newer material, but it's....it's not written at the same level. see, that's the thing: if it was, i'd have the same familiarity. it's not due to lack of exposure. some of the stuff on beacons came back to me when they played it, but even so it was kind of fuzzy.
which is not to say it wasn't enjoyable. the display of drum wizardry, itself, was worth the price of admission! and, they played a handful of older tunes, too. it's just that it's not the same thing - because it's not the same band. and, one should have reasonable and realistic expectations when going to see tortoise with their current lineup in 2016. i need to point the finger at myself in walking in with unrealistic expectations.
so, it's still tortoise. it's still a good show. but, be reasonable about what you're expecting.
i'm disappointed in the lack of footage online from the show, but this is a decent representation:
i found myself in an overnight diner until 8:00 am, due to the late night saturday morning bus service. diners are always entertaining if you have the right approach to them: you get drunks & cokeheads battling it out with saucy waitresses that expect to be tipped in inverse proportion to their attitudes, and usually are. there's always some narrative to follow. they were good about coffee, there, which is about all i ask for. although i managed a free breakfast from somebody, too.
he walked over towards me..
"i'm going to buy you breakfast."
"no, i'm ok. i know i'm sorting through change, but my bank card doesn't work here so i only have what i brought with me."
"no, i'm buying you breakfast."
"but, it's not..."
"i'm buying you breakast."
*pause*
the waitress asks me what i want. i get a special. he's gone before i can pay for it...
"he didn't actually buy me breakfast did he?"
"yup."
"i don't look that bad do i?"
"no. you actually look pretty good. i think that's *why* he bought you breakfast, if you see what i mean."
"but i told him over and over. if that's true, it's kind of invasive. i mean, it's non-consensual. i...i should just be quiet, right. say thank you and forget about it."
"yup. just be like: thanks weird dude..."
"i think it's gotta be more about him. after i tell him, like, five times - that's not about me. that's salvation through works, or something. it's just that there are people who actually can't get breakfast. people that would actually benefit. i'm just stuck here overnight. i just spent money on food and concert tickets and beer...you know..."
"you should just say thank you."
"yeah. i should."
the sun was shining brightly when i left, although the temperature was a little chilly.
===
the ride back was a struggle to keep my eyes open, and i *did* nod off a few times before i got to the end of the aata route, and started walking up michigan.
it was literally the moment that i put my thumb out that somebody slowed down and picked me up - as though he'd been waiting for me. or perhaps waiting for somebody to be waiting to get picked up, anyways.
it was an older guy, in what i guess was his fifties. he claimed he'd been up all night, and he was definitely a little bit drunk - but he was also obviously harmless. he had stories about wild nights in his youth at the bar i'd been to, and seemed a little surprised when i told him the band sounded a little like king crimson - as though he wished he was there. it was a short ride up to the mcdonalds on the other side of the freeway, a quick thank you and a brisk walk away. if i set off any flashbacks, i hope they were positive memories, on the whole.
the bus ride back was non-eventful. and, i did eventually make it home safely - and then slept for a full 24 hours.
the backstory for this evening was mostly related to the question of whether getting to this bar and back, through a part of detroit i'd yet to enter, could be done safely. in the end, i believe i was overly cautious: the bar is perhaps on the edge of scary-town, but it's also a block from campus. it may take a few trips for my nerves to calm, but i do not believe that i am putting myself in any danger by going to this venue, so long as i do not stray too far in the other direction. that said, i would obviously prefer to go to other bars to see shows...
===
the first act consisted of a woman playing guitar. it wasn't very interesting. if it was trying to be atmospheric or ambient, it wasn't; if it was trying to be technical, it wasn't, either (at all). it was actually to the point where a little bit more proficiency could have helped it succeed in being better, as ambient music. bluntly: it was some generic country/roots riffs played through a reverb pedal, masqueraded as some kind of art. i don't mean like morricone. i mean like garth brooks. again: i don't know how this kind of thing gets booked.
i tried to suggest to the guitarist that she needs to add more to what she's doing in order for it to not be boring, but the suggestion was received poorly. so, i moved on.
===
guerrilla toss came on considerably earlier than i expected, which allowed me to make the choice of whether to stay for the headliner or not. when i got home, i realized that they had done their "normal set" at third man records, down the street, a little earlier in the day (i didn't know that was taking place; if i did, i would have went). it seems as though they refrained from recycling their set. i had been listening to their most recent record for a few days up to the show, but the choice to not recycle the set meant i didn't know much of the material. they may have actually played some new material - i don't know; i've bumped into them a handful of times over the last couple of years, and i've had a mixed reaction, but i wouldn't exactly consider myself a fan. my decision to go to the show was more experiential: it just struck me as something that would be good live.
in fact, my immediate impression was that they sound a lot better on record than they do live. i've checked out a few live recordings (including footage of the early set...) and the issue is actually persistent and obvious: it's the open room. this is a band that has a very tight, compressed sound. it has a lot of complexity all over the spectrum, but it's rooted in a very busy and very squished bass/drum combo. so, you basically want to see them in a closet. a basement would be ideal! any kind of space with any kind of reverb at all is going to hollow them out, and make them sound blurry. you don't want to give them any space at all.
there's some mixing decisions you can make to balance it out, of course - and they seem to refrain from making them. but, more than anything else, it's the open ceiling. and, that's actually something more general to keep in mind about the bar - it would be good for anything ambient, but bad for any kind of punk.
i'm not knocking the show. don't misunderstand. it's just that the acoustics were very unfriendly. and, they seem to be making that error repeatedly. see them in an enclosed space, if possible. and recommend it, too - if you get the chance.
here's a full set:
they were done a little after 11:00, so i figured i'd get time to at least sample the headliner. but, rangda took a good while longer to set up; i'm guessing that they probably came on around 12:00. i didn't have to catch the bus until 12:23, but i didn't know how long it was going to take to walk back to the stop or how safe it was going to be, so i took the safe choice and left about 11:45....
frankly, i wasn't really impressed by the samples. nor am i at all a fan of ben chasny or richard bishop [i'm a little more familiar with chris corsano]. if it was ten degrees warmer out, or an hour earlier (or an hour later) or i was more comfortable in my surroundings or ... then i would have stayed and sauntered down to a coffee shop and hung out for the night. but, as things were, i was experimenting with the feasibility of getting to this bar and back before the last bus, and setting those parameters was more important.
maybe i missed a great show. but, i suspect that i just missed some aimless jamming by some guitarists that have never previously impressed me very much.
i nearly missed this show by passing out early in the afternoon, but i was able to get there right before the set started. apologies to the opening act, whom i will probably catch with psychic tv in a few months. this was not an intentional snub.
the issue was made worse by the fact that it was a messy night in detroit, and the venue is a forty minute bus ride away from the downtown core. that likely slowed me down an extra half hour, both from having to walk a little more slowly and from the bus moving at a slower pace.
but, it's not as though i arrived at the venue late, either. this was an early start to an early night.
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i bumped into somebody in the smoking section that was on his way out, and he decided to share a little - which was much appreciated. he was voting for trump, based on the logic that the country is in debt and a good businessman would help fix the debt problem.
"first of all, the country is not in real debt, it's just an accounting identity..."
this produced a puzzled glance.
"...and, second of all, this is a guy that's declared bankruptcy repeatedly. so..."
he knew how to answer the second part, even if he didn't know how to answer the first.
"bankruptcy is something that rich people do to help them out of taxes and stuff. it doesn't mean he was actually broke. it's all a scam."
"that's true. but, the same argument leads to the conclusion that the country isn't broke - that it's really just a big tax scam. and do you really want to make a tax cheat president?"
somebody else butts in, before he can respond.
"i'm afraid trump will start a war because somebody will look at him funny, or something. he's unstable. it's scary."
"really? i think he might argue that the military budget is a waste of money. i think the most pro-war candidate is actually clinton. and if you really want to vote for an anti-war candidate..."
"....but sanders is saying he's going to take on the banks and stuff. how's he going to do that? he can't actually do anything he says he's going to..."
"actually, i agree with you. i think if sanders was really serious, he would have started a third party and tried to take congress. it's the congress that has all the real power."
"but, nobody will vote for a third party!"
"then, you're right - nothing can change. not if you can't see beyond the status quo. not if you insist it cannot."
i escaped the conversation at that point, and went in for a beer. and, they do have good beer at the loving touch - those raspberry blondes. mmmm.
====
her set was very good; her material is very strong, and she's just simply very talented. i'm only familiar with two of her records (tragedy, and the newest one), and i think all of the material came from one of those two discs. her band was composed of what were obviously studied jazz pros (drums, bass, violin), which gave the set a bit of a loose feel; this was actually a net positive over top of some of her more structured material, although a big aspect of the opening up of those tracks had to do with her keyboard shutting off mid set and needing to be rebooted. those old nord leads sound great, but they're getting to the end of their life cycles. hey, i can empathize with being a little bit skeptical about just buying a new keyboard. but, her synth actually really kept dying during the set.
so, when the synth crashed, the band would need to take over until it came back in, and then she'd need to bring them back in. this is of course perilous for any performing artist and could have been an absolute disaster. but, through luck or talent it actually worked out very well on this night by inserting these jazzy instrumental improv sessions into what are very high-end pop songs.
i can't predict when her synth will die; certainly not any better than she can. but, i would suggest seeing her if you get the chance.
this is a late review, which i initially intended not to do at all, but i do think that i need to, after all.
the reason i decided to not do the review was that i intuited that the band realized i was there, and tried a few antics with the intent that i would take notice of them. that's pretty shitty, and i felt that the proper response was to pretend i never went.
but, that would leave a gaping hole in the show review list, which is just punishing myself. but, i will not take note of any of the things that were meant for me to take note of. and, i would prefer it (moving forwards) if bands and venues would continue to allow me to be the unimportant fly on the wall that i want to be. this is a waste of time, otherwise. it's being written solely for historical purposes; i will stop publishing these writings altogether if i start to think that i'm developing any kind of an audience.
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this was actually a really screwed up night (see the vlog, below), with all kinds of broken plans as a consequence of some bad advertising. i was actually hoping to take advantage of the scheduling to hit two shows, but the scheduling for both shows changed at the last minute, and i ended up only seeing most of one of the shows that i wanted to see, rather than both of them. it's life. things have worked out the other way more than once and will again more than twice.
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the first opening act for the show that i did get to see was entirely pointless, and at the end of the set it just left me wondering why the bar owner decided to waste anybody's time with it. it was all muzak covers. just a total waste of time. i don't know how a band like that manages to even get booked...
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this was the second time that i saw brothels. the first time, the show seemed really loose and haphazard - as though the songs were still being written. but, there was some potential if they could polish it a little. on this night, the songs seemed really compressed and a little too generic-punk-rock for my tastes (although the guitar tone was quite nice). the last song of the set, though, hit the middle point that i think they want to be aiming towards, hitting upon this incesticide-era sweet spot (think something like hairspray queen). abstract and noisy, but catchy and fun, too. the bassist claimed it's a side project for everybody, and they just don't spend much time with it. that's a shame, as that last track was hitting on something.
as far as i know, there is no media for brothels anywhere on the internet. so, i do wish i had caught that last track. alas...
====
the topic in between sets was trump and how to stop him, but the patrons didn’t seem to be particularly left-leaning, either. they seemed to realize that there was something unsettling about trump, but they didn’t really seem to be able to articulate it. the impression i got from them was more along the lines of the perception that the policies are already decided upon, so while trump may seem like an outrageous idiot, it wouldn’t really matter if he won – because the same legislation would get passed, either way. see, this is not an uninformed view, relative to the last thirty years of american politics. clinton and obama (and to a lesser extent, carter) have all carried on with the same basic republican game plan. so, why would anybody think it would matter if trump wins? this is a dangerous mindset, but it’s also a rational one – blame the people that brought us here, not the kids reacting to the situation!
so, quotes were thrown around, but as little more than frat-house shock value: “he actually said that!?”. the consequences of the words neither rung true nor false, but simply hollow. it was just another reality show, to be viewed from a distance with a gaped jaw rather than participated in.
but, something that got a bit more of a response was a discussion of the economic consequences of the proposed wall, and the idea that it will lead to massive inflation. a sampling of the response:
“i was hoping to get off ramen noodles after i graduate. shit. i guess i’ll need to put it off until i get promoted?”
that generated a laugh, and it was reflective of the general disconnected approach to the political process, the relegation of reality to fiction – the hyperreality that sets in when a guy that plays a joke on tv runs for president, and it looks like he might win. but, it also reflected the level of resignation that people seem to have to their place in the class hierarchy – even as they acknowledged the absurdity of the situation. if this is all you’ve ever known…
====
pop 1280 played a set with a split personality. when they were on, they were on. but, for whatever reason (no sound check? well, who do you blame for that?), half the set was out of time or out of tune. the singer was having a particularly bad night; he was having a really hard time staying in time. so, the takeaway was pretty lacklustre. the track i caught was probably the high point of the show, so take that as you may. for a variety of reasons, they didn't come on until after midnight; i left after about a half hour (i probably only a missed a song or two), because catching the bus was just more important than staying for a band that was having a bad night.
