Harsh Noise Karaoke

[ateolf]

Most of yesterday was taken up with the Harsh Noise Karaoke thing, my little in between even for Memphis Concrète, an "interactive exhibit". The plan was pretty much just put a bunch of pedals on a table in feedback loops. Someone had let me know they'd lend me a power brick as I couldn't find mine after all this time. They brought one up to the movie to give to me but then they didn't have the cables that connect from the brick to the pedals (there was one, so the brick was functionally a single power adapter), though I couldn't find my brick, I had located a bunch of the cables, but my brick is a different brand that uses a different type of jack so my cables wouldn't work with it. We had arranged that I could pick it back up from them the next day with the cables, but then when I contact them they made out that I could just get it like it was before, which would not have been worth the drive so I scrambled to get batteries into all my pedals. I made it up to the Lamplighter a little harried. I got shit set up, a little late not terribly bad. People arrived later anyway. My pedals made sound but they'd ended up being kind of quiet and not doing a whole lot. The parts that I brought that were simpler worked better: two mics through just distortion pedals and two Korg MOnotrons. Luckily Todd (Towering Flesh) came in from Nashville for the festival and he brought a whole bunch of his own shit, his pedalboards and little noise-making gadgets that helped make it less lame. A few people showed up. We made a lot of noise. Since it was Bloomsday I brough my copy of Ulysses and read a little bit of it through distortion. There was some show afterwards and though the venue owner had told me he'd cleared it with the band for us playing first, when they got there and were setting up, I overheard him talk to them in a way that indicated it was the first time he told them. I don't think they liked what we were doing at all. One guy was nice and said it was wild and he was digging the pedals and the sound (the rest seemed a bit stand-offish). But it's all good. We didn't take up a whole ton of time. I mentioned that a few people showed up. I'd say about seven total, including Todd and not including me. Not too bad for this weird in between thing. It might be a fun thing to do again but not part of the festival. Too much else going on to devote almost any time to it and it gets lost in the shuffle both preparation- and promotion-wise. Next time if there's a gap of days between things I'll just gladly take the fucking break! Okay, but the main festival is today! Soon!!