So this show at Little Mountain Studios last night was sparsely attended, probably because there were three other good shows going on last night. Still for those who made it the event was well received.
gr8-2000 (a.k.a. Tom Whalen) organized the event with Nihilist Party (a.k.a that guy named Scott with dreads whose at lots of shows). He plays high-energy electro music, heavy on synth noises with a solid beat, on his laptop while singing with his distorted vocals running through an FX pedal. The energy of his music doesn't just come from the noisy, while simultaneously dancey stuff, Tom composes, but also from his performance. Despite the fact that there were only about 15 people there early enough to see him Tom he gave it. Unfortunately his back was to the audience the whole time, which is always a bit annoying. On a side note I'm pleased to announce that gr8-2000 will be playing with Nü Sensae and Petroleum By-Products at the Astoria on May 6 for Discorder. Tell your friends!
London Drugs (who I can't find a link for) played second and I was very pleasantly surprised. They were described to me as "dueling Gameboys," which is an accurate description. When I was told this though I expected them to sound really gimmicky heavy on the retro Gameboy noises, but this was not the case. You couldn't even tell that this pair of young guys were making their music on a pair of Nintendo Gameboy DSs until someone brought out a table for them so they could play facing the audience. I had discussed the theory of the DS as an instrument between friends at length and seeing someone actually take a Gameboy and make fun dance music on it was really cool.
Fine Mist came on and despite Megan McDonald's complaint of suffering from a cold they were in fine form. Pretty '80s synth pop, it doesn't really sound very modern, but it does sound good. By this time the majority of people had showed up and the room felt full enough for people to start dancing. I've seen Megan and Jay Arner play on numerous occasions, and I'm glad to see they've got a bit of a following going. They played some new stuff, which sounded quite good and spiced up the list of now familiar songs like "I Can't Stand It," "In the Moonlight" and the one about meeting in the middle.
Closing the night out was Nihilist Party. I hadn't seen him play before, but he has a similiar style to gr8-2000. He plays beats off an iPod, while singing... really weird lyrics. He only played a couple songs so the event could end on time. I didn't really form a complete opinion of his stuff in that short time, but I'd see it again. Dude has a rad jacket decorated with googly eyes.
Afterwords I went to the upstairs of the Biltmore for karaoke and was surprised to find the place busy. I bring this up because some musicians from the other shows had all met up here and the guy from Vincat was an awesome karaoke performer. I will try to see them play not karaoke in the future.
None of my photographer friends came out last night so I'm using an old image. This is an old picture of Fine Mist playing at La Casa Del Artista. They were wearing the exact same clothing last night. Courtesy of Steve Louie.
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