Experimental Music Black Friday Extravaganza

[ateolf]

Had yet another great show last night! Thus concluded the run of Memphis Concrète's run of three goddamn shows in one week. Earlier in the day Mary Beth and I went on a walk (and we even saw Tori chasing her tail). But then in the evening I went up to the Hi Tone for the show. It was the lowest turnout of the three, but given the circumstances (Black Friday and friends of ours having another show upstairs) it wasn't too bad, I guess. Musically it was fucking phenomenal. Started off with Berkay Tok. I'd been wanting to see him in person since the virtual festival (well, before that really) and he was incredible, even better live! Next up was W1ND0W and they had a really great set. Lots of noisy bits and nice crazy stereo-panned breakbeats. The last half of their set had Emily (of whit3corset) joining and they got into some no wave territory at times. Then it was Chelsea Bridge, the touring musician from Chicago. She did lots of stuff with delay and loops (that get warped). She started with guitar, added vocals, added violin and then back and forth across the various instruments. It was very good and got very physical towards the end as she took the guitar out into the audience floor (though with plenty of space because, erm, not that much audience, some but...you know, plenty of space) and laid the guitar down and kinda humped it and stuff, lots of screaming into the pickup and whatnot. It went from serene and ambient to warped and ambient to harsh and noisy (good bits of shrieking feedback in places). It was a really good set. And finally Nonconnah ended things with maybe the best set of theirs I'd seen in a while. When they got to the loud wall-of-guitar part of the set, they really went for it and it was super-loud and noisy and wall-like. Zachary had been bummed out after a show last week where literally nobody showed up and after this show said he was heartened. We didn't have a lot of people, but he said it was a better crowd than they'd had in a while. Plus all the good energy and the great performances all around. He admitted his "never playing again in Memphis" claim wouldn't likely last forever, that he's said same multiple times in the past, they'll probably eventually play again, but still, cut things back because of the pain he's been having in his hands. But it was good to see him feel better about things after the show. I did pick up some merch from Chelsea Bridge, a cd and a couples tapes. The cd: Chelsea Bridge & Jeremiah M. Carter: The Way It Pours into Itself. After this show, I hopped upstairs to catch The Pop Ritual's set. I caught the end of Kontravoid, kinda just generic four-to-the-floor beats. Would have liked to see Dog Chakra of course, but they were earlier. Josh (who'd come to our show) was also up there checking the "second" show out. Oh, it was the first time I'd been in the upstairs of the new-new Hi Tone. It's kinda weirdly laid out, but I guess the last location was too, in a different way. But the floor layout is kinda narrow with a bit of an elongated 'L' shape. But behind the stage there's a window and it shows out to the Crosstown (old Sears) building so you have the wonderful art deco lights of the tower and it's a pretty great view to see music in front of. The Pop Ritual played and were good. At one point there was an issue with the mic going out in the middle of a song and Colin just went out into the crowd and screamed the vocals amongst the people. It was a pretty sweet way to handle all that. Okay, so now it's the next day and I'd gotten to sleep late and woke up early. But, good time!