Enter, Rock
Jul. 5th, 2014 01:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ateolfOkay, now let's get to the music of the show! Mostly not too much that I didn't report from last time. Xiu Xiu's set was the same type of harsh electronic drone. There were definitely differences in the details, but the overall feel, including the continual, steady high-pitch tone, was the same. At one point early on he barked like a dog, that was different. It was again really good. Josh didn't like it, he said he likes his music to do more. I thought it did a lot, but changing notes wasn't one of them and I know most people have a different concept of what music is than I do (i.e. it's changing notes, which to me is only one of many components music can have). Swans played the same set at they had in St. Louis (MAYBE one song towards the end was switched, couldn't remember exactly but it probably was the same, maybe sometime I'll check setlists online to see). One main difference was in the mood. You may recall my saying that the last show was the crankiest I'd seen Michael Gira, well this show was the opposite! Also with the bass player. Apparently something was going wrong with the bassist's amp (I mean, you could hear him just fine, heard someone later say the effects loop wasn't working so you could hear bass but no effects...not that his playing is heavily processed...). Anyway, he stops the show to try to change amps and this kills the show for a long period of time. This also happens twice, after the next song too. So there was a lot of dead time. But for part of that Michael had a small amount of banter, even joking with the audience. At one point he asked "Johnny Cash didn't really play here did he?" (The venue has walls covered with a bunch of the acts that had played there). When people shouted to let him know that he had in fact played the very place, he seemed impressed and played and sang a little bit of "I Walk the Line." So it was kinda neat that the equipment "malfunction" afforded us the opportunity to see a playful side of Michael Gira, but it did really kill a good bit of the momentum for a while. But when it got going again, they recovered it. And as it went on, it had moments that topped the previous show. Some of those louder bits really reached the transcendent levels of those first Swans shows and removed my physchical self completely from the stinky people bumping into me. So it was really interesting to see those two shows back to back and experience the differences in spite of how similar they were. After the show I picked up the To Be Kind tour shirt in the correct size this time. Nearby while I was waiting to get to the merch booth, some people were talking about the show. One older (well, maybe my age) guy said it was "transcendent." The younger guy he was with said it was "impressive." Then the older guy got indignant and argued with him saying he was young and as life went on he'd know how rare it was for THAT to happen. Internally, I agreed with him. I got my stuff and went outside to see a text from Mary Beth that they were inside and upstairs. Since the show was over, I decided to brave the "no reentry" signs. The bouncer stopped me at first but I argued just a little bit about my friends being inside and needing to get them (I mean, the show was OVER) and he relented pretty quickly.
Okay, back to the hotel to sleep. We pretty much headed straight out in the morning after eating hotel food breakfast. We dropped Josh and Molly off and went back by our place. Did a little cat cleanup and feeding and a small amount of getting ready before heading RIGHT back out on the road again for the much longer trip to Austin. We also switched cars (took my car for the first part and Mary Beth's for the longer drive). Getting out of Memphis was a huge hassle. Traffic over the main bridge was extremely backed up. I noticed it before we got on the exit towards the mess (and not very close to the bridge, a mile or maybe two away). So I took a different route, checked traffic patterns on my phone, and made it to the old bridge. So there was a little bit of a delay in getting out of the city. Also crappy in our start was the amount of construction. It was really backed up and we had a bit of a delay deeper into Arkansas around Forest City. So we didn't make good time but we got into Austin before midnight. Oh, maybe an hour or less before arriving a fucking cop pulled me over. He got to the car and said something that sounded real bullshit about the plastic border around license plates in Texas but oh, then he saw we were from Tennessee so it was okay and let us go. At least nothing came of it, but it all felt pretty suspect. After making it in we went to the Draught House Pub and then crashed back at the hotel.
Alright, now it's the next day. First thing is we get breakfast tacos at Juan in a Million. The migas taco was outstanding. Okay, we tried to keep it light to get to the next place: La Barbecue at its new location. Last year we got there a little after opening with not much wait. This year we got there a little BEFORE and waited close to an hour and a half in the hot sun. Had we known it'd be like that this time we probably wouldn't've gone, but the food was really awesome. This brisket's still just as good. So it did have a little moment of divinity. Afterwards we had the ritual where I dropped off Mary Beth at Rio Rita's and I went to Switched On! I got to play a frickin' Korg PS-3300, wasn't able to patch it or anything, but it was still fun to play. I also played an Oberheim OB-Xa. They didn't have the modules I was really looking for (a Make Noise René...lacking that an Intellijel Metropolis...sequencers was what I was after!), but I played around and got a few smaller things, more utility-oriented for my eurorack. I got two Pittsburgh modules: Dual VCA and a Midi 2. I also got a Malekko Switch. Now I may need to completely redo my modular's layout. But it should be fun to re-arrange and plan. While I was there, the guys were playing Hardcore Devo, getting ready for the show too! And before I left I saw an EML ElectroComp 200. Ooh, I had to play that before I walked away. It wasn't plugged in so I asked if I could play it, then someone took it down and moved it elsewhere to hook it up. I didn't know it'd be so much work, but it was really fun to play. It had a kind've unique, dirty sound. Also its control/layout scheme was a little unorthodox for synths and that was fun to mess with. Okay, so now I'm picking Mary Beth up and we head downtown. We first go to this art museum: The Contemporary Austin Jones Center. Their exhibit was related to the body. There was some good stuff there. Definitely contemporary art in its feel. They had Matthew Barney photographs that were really good. After this place we went to Peche, a bar we'd been to last time that Mary Beth really liked. Ooh, we're almost to Devo. Time for a new post.
Okay, back to the hotel to sleep. We pretty much headed straight out in the morning after eating hotel food breakfast. We dropped Josh and Molly off and went back by our place. Did a little cat cleanup and feeding and a small amount of getting ready before heading RIGHT back out on the road again for the much longer trip to Austin. We also switched cars (took my car for the first part and Mary Beth's for the longer drive). Getting out of Memphis was a huge hassle. Traffic over the main bridge was extremely backed up. I noticed it before we got on the exit towards the mess (and not very close to the bridge, a mile or maybe two away). So I took a different route, checked traffic patterns on my phone, and made it to the old bridge. So there was a little bit of a delay in getting out of the city. Also crappy in our start was the amount of construction. It was really backed up and we had a bit of a delay deeper into Arkansas around Forest City. So we didn't make good time but we got into Austin before midnight. Oh, maybe an hour or less before arriving a fucking cop pulled me over. He got to the car and said something that sounded real bullshit about the plastic border around license plates in Texas but oh, then he saw we were from Tennessee so it was okay and let us go. At least nothing came of it, but it all felt pretty suspect. After making it in we went to the Draught House Pub and then crashed back at the hotel.
Alright, now it's the next day. First thing is we get breakfast tacos at Juan in a Million. The migas taco was outstanding. Okay, we tried to keep it light to get to the next place: La Barbecue at its new location. Last year we got there a little after opening with not much wait. This year we got there a little BEFORE and waited close to an hour and a half in the hot sun. Had we known it'd be like that this time we probably wouldn't've gone, but the food was really awesome. This brisket's still just as good. So it did have a little moment of divinity. Afterwards we had the ritual where I dropped off Mary Beth at Rio Rita's and I went to Switched On! I got to play a frickin' Korg PS-3300, wasn't able to patch it or anything, but it was still fun to play. I also played an Oberheim OB-Xa. They didn't have the modules I was really looking for (a Make Noise René...lacking that an Intellijel Metropolis...sequencers was what I was after!), but I played around and got a few smaller things, more utility-oriented for my eurorack. I got two Pittsburgh modules: Dual VCA and a Midi 2. I also got a Malekko Switch. Now I may need to completely redo my modular's layout. But it should be fun to re-arrange and plan. While I was there, the guys were playing Hardcore Devo, getting ready for the show too! And before I left I saw an EML ElectroComp 200. Ooh, I had to play that before I walked away. It wasn't plugged in so I asked if I could play it, then someone took it down and moved it elsewhere to hook it up. I didn't know it'd be so much work, but it was really fun to play. It had a kind've unique, dirty sound. Also its control/layout scheme was a little unorthodox for synths and that was fun to mess with. Okay, so now I'm picking Mary Beth up and we head downtown. We first go to this art museum: The Contemporary Austin Jones Center. Their exhibit was related to the body. There was some good stuff there. Definitely contemporary art in its feel. They had Matthew Barney photographs that were really good. After this place we went to Peche, a bar we'd been to last time that Mary Beth really liked. Ooh, we're almost to Devo. Time for a new post.
