[Jandek] Denver etc.

[Seth Tisue]

last night's lineup: the rep sang and played fretted electric bass (3rd
bass show ever, 1st fretted), joined by a young band consisting of
Brittany Gould (wordless vocals, effects), Kevin Richards (electric
guitar), Karl Zickrick (electric guitars and bass), and Andrew Lindstrom
(drums).  this was a storming garage/basement band powered by a forceful
drummer and the guitarists kicking up some dense collective textures,
but it also had an ethereal quality, even during loud passages, lent by
Gould's vocals, like the garage or basement had come unmoored from the
house and was tumbling through space.  in Boston the rep's bass had the
low end of the sound spectrum to itself and its clear toned throb played
an anchoring role, but at this show more often Zickrick was the anchor
and the rep was more like an additional guitarist filling out or
sometimes cutting through the ensemble.  the rep's bass had a buzzy,
slashing tone that emphasized the rhythms of his fingers striking his
strings more than the vibration of the strings afterwards, and he often
played in the upper range of the instrument.  there were about 10 songs
in about 100 minutes, split about equally between rockers with shouted
vocals and more subdued sections with the rep confiding his words to the
microphone.  the size of the band made a lot of the lyrics hard to catch;
anyone remember fragments or passages that struck them?  I caught this:
"I can't tell you about myself/ It would be impossible to/ But I'll
draw you little pictures/ So you can see for yourself" (approximate).
anyway, this was an exhilarating show.  the sheer amount of aural
activity coming from the stage is going to make the eventual cd release
a good headphone listen, I think.

at the Columbus show the rep will play Korg synthesizers
(like Manhattan and Toronto)

there will be a Florida show in December... details soon

-- 
Seth Tisue | http://tisue.net