Keith Fullerton Whitman & Geoff Mullen, Eli Keszler & Ashley Paul, Perispirit, Zerfallt, Double Awake at Great Scott

Geoff Mullen & Keith Fullerton Whitman

Eli Keszler & Ashley Paul

Perispirit

Zerfallt

Double Awake

More photos on Flickr

Double Awake: thick drone, vocal based and stuttered out with abrupt volume shifting

Zerfallt: the audio version of a lead blanket so heavy your legs can't hold out

Perispirit: power beauty

Eli Keslzer & Ashley Paul: the usual controlled frenzied awesomeness with the addition of a bowed banjo

Keith Fullerton Whitman & Geoff Mullen: not gonna touch this one; you'll just have to imagine it

Show Worthy 5/4-5/10

Animal Hospital via
Tuesday, May 5
Brian S. Ellis, Paul G. Maziar, Animal Hospital, Greg Mullen at Church (FREEEEEEE, 8:00 21+)
This is the second night of The Whitehaus putting on a free show at Church. Last one was that Hunted Creatures/Ophibre/Nature/Peace, Loving show and it was AMAZING. This one seems to be just as promising with some really great bands. Just an FYI, Prince Rama was originally billed but had to cut out at the last minute and was replaced with Animal Hospital. AH just dropped the fucking ridiculously amazing Memory and he puts on an awesome show. And it's free. So you should go.




Thursday, May 7
Twin Crystals, Modern Creatures, Prince Rama Of Ayodhya, Quilt at Gay Gardens (FREEEEEEEEEish, 8:00, all ages)
More Prince Rama? Yes. This one goes down at Gay Gardens in Allston, and there are "mandatory donations" for all shows there. If you wanna be a dick about it, you could "donate" the spare change in your pocket but they have every right to turn you away. You should probably support the good people that are performing for you as well as those at Gay Gardens and you can do so by dropping some cash at the door or at the merch table. Especially because both Twin Crystals and Modern Creatures are on tour from Vancouver. So go have fun and be nice.




Friday, May 8
Multimedia Circus at The Armory ($10, 7:00, all ages)
Voidstar Productions and Arts At The Armory are putting on one helluva show. The Boston Typewriter Orchestra, DJ Darryl Hell, Bill T Miller's Orgy Of Noise, Nau-Zee-Aun, Empire SNAFU, Eliza Blaze & David Pendu, The Vomit Arsonist, Mike D & The 3:2 Percussion Ensemble, November 14 and more. "Aerialists, turntablists, circuit benders, 3D video, performance art, mixed media, experimental music, invented and found instruments, and more will fill this 3.5 hour long non-stop show." All for 10 bucks? Who are you kidding, there's nothing else going on Friday that's going to be cheaper or more fun than this. Except maybe.....




Friday, May 8
Sway, Yankee Blue Jeans, Mikey French Fries, The Tin Thistles at Plough & Stars (FREE-$6, 9:00, 21+)
Upbeat, charming, alt country stuff to stomp your feet to. Sway is probably the best indiecountryfolk band ever and if you haven't seen them live yet, now's the time. Also, Wicked Whiskey may or may not be playing this show.



Eli Keszler & Ashley Paul at Studio Soto via
Sunday, May 10
Keith Fullerton Whitman & Geoff Mullen, Eli Keszler & Ashley Paul, Double Awake at Great Scott ($8, 9:00, 18+)
OH. SHIT. Can't believe this is happening. Not only are percussionist extraordinaire Keszler & Paul the sax beast joining forces again but the noisedrone masters KFW and Mullen are doing another one of their super rare live collabs. I saw them play together at PA's Lounge a few years back and I left with my mind melted. And Double Awake is opening? FUCK. This is NOT to be missed.

Thurston Moore & Mats Gustafsson, Sickness, Ashley Paul, Perispirit at The Middle East Upstairs

Perispirit

Ashley Paul

Sickness

Bill Nace & Thurston Moore

Mats Gustafsson
Intransitive Recordings (aka Howard Stelzer) know how to put on a good show. He did that New Year's Eve show with Nerve Net Noise, Hive Mind, etc, and last night he gathered some more noise aficionados for a night of scary music.

Ricardo Donoso (of Semata Productions, The Epicureans, etc) and Luke Moldof (of Stillbirth) are Perispirit. They're a somewhat newish band with only one recording under their belt (a double tape called Forced-Choice Test made up specifically for this show, which you can look forward to a review of) but they have got some fucking chops. Due to my uncharacteristic tardiness, I only caught the end of their set. I came in just as all hell was breaking loose. It felt like I was being punched in the throat. It's the kind of noise that leaves your body numb afterwards from vibrating so much. So yeah. That was pretty awesome.

Ashley Paul was up next. HIGH end drone with live sax processing. Very shrill, very intimidating, very cool. Sadly, there were the loudest most inconsiderate dee-bags ever to be found at a noise show all over the goddamn place. Too fucking distracting. Hey guys? If you don't like it, leave. Otherwise, let the rest of the people enjoy what they paid good money for.

Sickness was fucking complete annihilation. Glitch power noise electronics ear shredding fucking violence. Kinda like End's The Sounds Of Disaster meets Prurient. Sickness taped a couple of tiny mics to his throat so he could groan and growl all throughout his set. Spit was dripping from his mouth, the table he set up was shaking so much it was about to collapse, it was terrifying. Do NOT miss this guy if he ever comes your way.

Surprise of the night: Thurston and Mats weren't alone. The two of them were actually joined by Bill Nace on guitar and Chris Corsano on drums. Together they unleashed the freest crazy noise jazz explosion I've ever witnessed. It was totally unlike anything I have ever seen before. Not a single person played their instruments in the "proper" way; everything was highly experimental. Screwdrivers and chisels used on guitars, t-shirts and who knows what else on the drums, and Mats was just going batshit insane on his wicked old and ginormous sax, occasionally taking a break from it to tweak some electronic knobs. Just incredible.

This was the first show Intransitive has put on that ever sold out. It's kind of a no brainer when you got Thurston Moore on the bill but still, an impressive feat for a noise show. Here's hoping it's not the last.

Here's a clip I shot of Thurston, Mats, and the rest going crazy. It sounds shitty but you get the idea.

New Year's Eve With Intransitive's Friends

Nerve Net Noise

Hive Mind

Mike Shiflet

Eli Keszler

What's the best way to spend New Year's Eve? Getting drunk with friends and strangers alike? Meh. Getting laid by your one true love? Satisfactory. Going to a concert presented by Intransitive Recordings with the US debut performance by Nerve Net Noise? Fuck yeah.

One of the best parts of last night was seeing all of the local warriors in experimental music converge in room 309 of the Hynes Convention Center. In addition to all of the performers and Howard Stelzer (the man behind Intransitive) there was Ricardo Donoso of Semata Productions, Greg Kelley, Jay Sullivan, Brendan Murray, Al Deaderick of Magic People, Wayne Rogers of Major Stars, and I think I saw Keith Fullerton Whitman at one point. And those are just the people I recognized. But me being the nervous anti-social pussy that I am didn't talk to anyone except Howie.

There was a slight change of plans with Eli Keszler and Ashley Paul performing first instead of last. They dove right in head first and kicked things off with their frenzied noisy skronk. I could listen to Eli's bowed percussion for hours on end.

Columbus' Mike Shiflet was up next. It was really good at the time but I'm having a hard time remembering anything specific about it. There was this weird interlude with a manipulated sample of a guy coughing and clearing throat. That's all I got.

Hive Mind came on wearing sunglasses. Is that a signature thing he does? Like Slipknot with their masks? Kinda lame. I'm not one for stage shticks. But it's all about the music, right? In that sense, Hive Mind delivered. He put down some truly beautiful and terrifying thick blackened ambience. So so cool. Sadly, he cut his set short because the right speaker stopped working. Even with the technical difficulties, though, he was still amazing.

Then it was time for motherfuckin NNN. He came all the way from Japan for this one show. A homemade analog electronics board with two joysticks was pretty much all this guy brought and he made that shit SO loud. At one point, people started cheering because he just kept cranking the volume up. It sounded like 100 people sampling the sound effects from Excite Bike, without the gay music. I just sat there slack jawed. Not that I think it'll happen again anytime soon, but if Nerve Net Noise ever shows up on American soil again, you make sure you do whatever you have to do to see him play.

The full room emptied out pretty quick. A ton of people left and missed out on Hollywood's Damion Romero. Which is a shame 'cause this guy fucking destroyed. Laid out some seriously gorgeous drones and it built up into a fucking loud as fuck gorgeous cacophony. You know how Sigur Ros' untitled #8 song just keeps building, and there's that cathartic release when it just explodes? Well, this was the explosion. He just kept adding layers upon layers of static, it became a moaning wall of sheer exquisite noise. I couldn't move, just closed my eyes and let it envelope me. That, my friends, is how you ring in the new year.