Where I Left Off with Memphis Concrète

Okay, now I have to pick up where I left off! I think I was talking about things falling behind throughout most of the day on Saturday (thought they caught up by the end, miracle of miracles). It was, you know, a day of some awesome music. MPX was really good even though I thought the drums might make things overly complicated, but I thought they played especially well together. Max Eilbacher was really great. He did a performance art piece with Duncan Moore who was touring with them. They were hitting these hand-held glockenspiel-like bell things in different times and hooked up to a flashing light system (starting off sitting in chairs in front of the stage). They'd move around, parts had random words. It was a really good conceptual piece. Then Optic Sink who are always good. Then Mykel Boyd, I didn't catch all of his set, ended up getting "roped" into a conversation with Martin from Matmos in the atrium. But he's always really good, and a super-nice guy. Oh shoot, now should be the time for Rapoon's set but I should back up and mention the first "disaster" that happened. (This one's not so bad and ended up actually have a positive counterbalance to a later and much worse disaster).

We started off Saturday morning by finding out that Robin (Rapoon) was sick and would not be able to play that night. We did some scrambling around, finally decided we'd switch Pas Musique's set since he was there. He was supposed to play with Shaun Sandor too though and he was not there yet. But we figured we'd give Pas Musique the full set the first night and then squeeze in a shorter set with Shaun as well as squeeze in a shorter set for Rapoon the next night. So Pas Musique performed solo and it was very energetic and good. He has a more "fun-loving" approach to concept-art noise. He, Robert Pepper, was also very nice.

Okay, and last for Saturday was Matmos. Fuckin' Matmos! They were once again incredibly great live. They did a lot where Martin made sounds with some plastic object and Drew sampled them and did things playing them back to create different rhythms and layers. And just everything was great. They mostly played off the new album but the songs they played got longer explorations. Oh, I forgot to say that Drew earlier seemed quite impressed with my keystone correction skills, being nearly shocked that I was able to get a descent projection with a keystone so severe. Anyway, but yeah, on the fourth song (which is not on the album, just some little jazzy thing they have) I came up with the trombone and did a few blurting bursts. It's really hard to even process that. I mean, I played on stage with Matmos, even if it was something as goofy as a trombone I can barely play. Like...what!? How did this happen!? Oh, and Drew hugged me when the song was over! Throughout (and even in the months, year and a half really, of emails before), they were exceedingly nice and funny. I felt on my game for myself, I got a few decent quips in here and there (and only a few awkward misfires). After we were taking stuff down and the house music was playing (my mp3 player loaded up with early electronic and musique concrète shit on shuffle) and one song came on that Martin was like, "what is this!? this is wild?" so I looked it up and it was İlhan Mimaroğlu and a little later (it was a long one), he came back into the room after getting a cart and announced "Entering the Chamber of Mimaroğlu!"). So he enjoyed the house music! The sound guys decidedly did not! A lot of it sounded like feedback to them. Well, I have discussed the awesome force of Matmos so now to move on to a new post!

Back to Memphis Concrète

Okay, so Saturday is over, now on to Sunday. This is where bigger things went wrong. So yeah, first thing of the day is that Moor Mother cancelled. Saying she "missed" her flight. There was morning scrambling and Amy even found her another flight but she wouldn't take it. So the main headliner for day two bailed the morning of! Uh, yeah. And she'd gotten a partial advance payment which may portent some future legal issues, we shall see. Here's where there was at least some dovetailing, with Rapoon being switched to the second night, it was an easy swap without having to squeeze anything in.

We were able to get going a little later and after we got the artists loaded in we had time and figured we'd get some food (this was me, Chris, and Jacques there at the time). I had barely eaten anything at all throughout Saturday (mostly was just running on soda all day). Eating Sunday would be a good plan! We had some ideas of where to go so we drove towards downtown but it was too crowded then back towards midtown but it was too crowded then a circle to the area we were just in downtown, where we actually parked and went in but overheard there was a thirty to forty-five minute wait (and by this point we didn't have the time!). So a big circle driving around town for like thirty minutes trying to hit a few brunchy places during peak brunch time. Well, then we had a brainstorm and hit up Top's for cheeseburgers! I also found out you can get pork on the cheeseburger! It was good and novel, but their burger is actually better and more pure without it.

Okay, back to Memphis Concrète. The day starts off again with the random collaborations. Ihcilon + Jack the Giant Killer, then Linda Heck + Pas Moi. Both were excellent as they all were! Ihcilon and Jack almost felt like they were fighting each other but in this way that was very balanced and seemed to work. I mean, it was really good. All those collaborative sets were some of the best fucking parts of the whole thing. Then it was Jack Alberson. His set was really good, he actually blended his synth pop songs real well with improvised experimental segments. Paul Vinsonhaler was great and impressed everyone. He started off with some cello which he played briefly and fed into his modular and then let the modular take over from there. Then there was Artificer and she was great as always. So, the performer who played after her had not yet shown up by the end of her set so I went up and told her she could keep going if she wanted, she played a little bit more, something unprepared and spontaneous and it was great too! (She said later she was nervous about it because she plans out her sets but thought it might have sounded even better than the planned part! They both sounded great.) Well, then we're just waiting for the next artist to show up. The sound guy wanted to get a break so I told him, since I didn't know when or if he'd show up he could go. He arrived fifteen minutes after he thirty minute set was scheduled to start. (That's not counting set up time, that's just walking in the door.) So we got him set up and started without the sound guy, but you know, whatever. He'd given me the ipad which the is the mixer and everything and I know I messed some stuff up, but you know, whatever. Outside Source was good musically as always, but this is where we got really thrown off schedule (I mean, it was running perfectly on time up to that point). Then it was Tavishi and they were incredible. Really powerful live set. Then it was Pas Musique + Shaun Sandor. It was a very different set from Pas Musique's the previous night. He started off playing an inflatable cow. Generally it was tamer, but still in an awesome and noisy way. Shaun played a lot of bowed bass. Rapoon ended the night. Finally heard his set. One cool thing is that there was a small group of superfans of his who couldn't make it on Saturday for some reason but were excited to be able to actually catch him on Sunday. The crowd by this point was kinda small but it makes sense given the tumultuous nature of that night's main headliner cancelling and the other headliner switching nights and all. Matmos brought a very big crowd for us which was nice. I was surprised by the turnout at the very beginning of each day. I mean, it wasn't huge crowds but more than I was expecting for three in the afternoon. Though it didn't steadily build, there were dips and builups off and on throughout. All in all it was a really good time and lots of really nice people from all sides.

What can I remember to say about it all? There's just so much that I know I'm going to forget a bunch. And I was tired throughout. Oh I almost forgot to mention the after party show on Saturday night. After Matmos and packing up what we needed to, we went to Artemisia Studios for this Container show. It's funny 'cuz Max Eilbacher knows Container and they realized they were in the same city the same night. I went but I didn't stay too long as I was dead tired and knew I had to wake up again for another day. But I went and talked to some people. I think there was going to be another show on Sunday across the street at the Hi-Tone that Gavin set up but I was too tired to even bother for that one. Okay, I'm going to continue in another post now!

Finishing Talking about Memphis Concrète

So back to trying to reconstruct everything. Picked up merch from various folks. Some of it was given to me, some purchased. Here are the cds I got: Careful Handling + Adam Harmless, Matmos: The Ganzfeld EP, Max Eilbacher: A System That Slips, Drekka: Examinations : 2016 - 2018, Hierophants: Parallax Error, Jack Eley: Parallax, G.X. Jupiter-Larsen + Allan Zane: Banjax, Mike Shiflet/Mykel Boyd: s/t, Uchronia ("3CD compilation: Experimental, electroacoustic, noise, improvised music from the Middle East, Central, South, South East, East Asia"), Argiflex: Generative Being, Third Noise Principle (4 cd comp of "formative north american electronica 1975-1984"), Pas Musique/Ben Link Collins/Shaun Sandor: Of Silence, Rapoon & Promute: Machine River, and Old Castle: s/t. I also got a cassette from Careful Handling, an Ultimate Care II dvd from Matmos, and a limited lathe cut 7" from Mykel Boyd (collab with Rapoon). Oh and Crosstown had printed a few huge posters to go on the sandwich boards and we all got one and it's very nice and that's cool! I know there's gotta be more that I'm forgetting now, but I'll probably fill in later as it drips back in my brain.

I'll move to Monday. It was a day of rest. Though I did still manage to wake up early! My body just isn't used to it. I was sore all over but I didn't do much. Had to go back up to Crosstown to pick up the rest of my stuff. Then Mary Beth and I went on a lunch date to Maciel's so I finally had their famous burrito with fries in it! Good stuff. We walked a little down to the river and it was nice but hot! What else? I should have been writing all these posts then but I was just laying like a puddle in the bed most of the day too lazy to do even that! I did write a long thank you post on facebook, I guess that took up my energies. Then it was back to work today though I was kinda feeling lazy and not super productive. At least this is a good week to follow the festival, being all split up with the holiday and everything. Oh and I worked a little late today 'cuz I was in an interview. Well, now I'm done with this although I'm sure a whole lot more shit must come. I know I'm forgetting so much! Argh!