Big Days

[ateolf]

For Xiu Xiu I got as close and center as I could get. It was a pretty great set, the one I was most looking forward to coming here. It also came at the cost of the most painful skipping of another show at the same time: Roedelius. Agh! At least Mary Beth got to go to that show so we could spread the love. But Xiu Xiu was really good. I have the album they put out last year so it was like that, but awesome to see it live. They had footage projected behind them, but it was very minimal. It was just three successive images that looped. The first was the stairs with the fan at the top. The second was slo-mo trees blowing in the wind. The third was a close up of the fan. Jamie did a Leland impersonation towards the end that was pretty sweet. I could tell people were uncomfortable during "Sycamore Trees" because the music was very soft and quiet and Jamie Stewart was at peak Jamie Stewart and awkwardly loud (in a good way, but a way that made many people uncomfortable). This was the only show we overhead multiple people talking negatively about. Later in the day at a restaurant we heard this guy talking to the person he was with about it saying how much he loves the original music and how they made it sound too much like Xiu Xiu. Later at the art museum the next day some more people were talking about it with similar comments. Mary Beth wrote them down. I'll try to get the quotes later. Amusing stuff. After this I book it in high high gear all the way up to the Mill & Mine. I made it "on time" but then everything was behind anyway and I waited fifteen minutes before they pulled down the ropes to let us in anyway. Musica Elettronica Viva played in the middle of the floor as well. Everyone sat down encircling them. One guy played piano and the other two had keyboards/laptops (one had a little Moog Mother 13). They were good, musique concrète-ish stuff, electroacoustic to use a term I'm using a bunch anyway, improv, it was good. I'd only heard something of theirs from back in the 60s or whatever. I think I go to the Terminal maybe. I may have missed some stops and purchases. At some point I picked up from the merch table: Harmonia: Musik von Harmonia, Hans-Joachim Roedelius & Tim Story: Inlandish, and Qluster: Rufen. At another time later, I picked up: Meredith Monk: Songs from the Hill / Tablet, Meredith Monk: Our Lady of Late, and Carolina Eyck with American Contemporary Music Ensemble: Fantasias for Theremin and String Quartet. I know the latter purchase was at least later in the day Saturday because it was after I actually saw her. Can't quite place the times on these though. Mary Beth met up with me and we continued the rest of the night together. Back to the Mill & Mine for Colin Stetson's "reimagining" of Gorecki's third symphony. I think this was the show where we were up close and then this girl cut in and got next to this guy right in front of Mary Beth and she couldn't see anymore so we went to the back. The show was really good. Yeah. So we make it to The Standard to see Jessica Moss. I'll say she was good, I keep saying things were good! She did violin and lots of pedals. She did loops and drones and played with effects. Side note: she's in A Silver Mt. Zion. I was enjoyed it but we had to leave about halfway through to make it down to the Bijou to catch Henry Grimes's set. That was fantastic. He had an interesting setup. He played bass as he does and he had a drummer, cellist, and flautist. I felt really privileged to have gotten to witness him play. Next we had to book it all the way back up to the Mill & Mine to catch Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. That venue was still running behind so we weren't late. She was really good. Makes sense she's collaborated with Suzanne Ciani as her sound's pretty similar (and Buchla, though she uses the electronic easel). Some drunk guy kept bumping into me which was mildly annoying, that was really the only show where that typical drunken obnoxiousness played out at all, and still it was really mild. Mary Beth's feet were too tired to make it down to the Bijou again (and back up to the bridge between the venue and Jackson Terminal where our car was afterwards) so we did the only between shows driving the whole festival. It was pretty late so traffic and parking was lighter and more available than most parts of the day. That made things easier. Supersilent was fucking awesome. Mostly droney with jazzy little flourishes (I'll make another In a Silent Way comparison) and often really noisy. A few times these chaotic, loud percussive blasts happened and number of people left at that point. They were another one of the better performances of the festival. Really glad I got to see them.

Okay, back up and sleepy for another day. Sunday! The final day of the festival. I picked up some more breakfast to eat while walking to my first event. Oh, I also picked up my final cd: Colin Stetson: Sorrow: a Reimagining of Gorecki's 3rd Symphony. Okay so I'm walking on the bridge and who do I walk right past but Colleen! (I know that's not her actual name.) Though I happen to be stuffing a biscuit and gravy doughnut into my face as I'm passing her so yeah. I make it down to the Tennessee theater to catch a screening of Meredith Monk's only film Book of Days. I wasn't able to catch the whole thing because of another event, but what I saw of it was really incredible. I'm going to have to track it down and watch the whole thing later. I went back to Jackson Terminal for a panel discussion on the impact of Pauline Oliveros's work. It was with Allan Curran (of Musica Elettronica Viva) and a lady whose name I forget and isn't in the program (Mary Beth saw her play piano later at a performance that I wasn't at, I think she runs an organization of some sort as well, I forget shit). It was mostly Allan talking about knowing her back in the day, but ooh here's a fun spot to leave off. Something very special happened afterwards. I was in a performance! To be continued after the cut.