[Jandek] Jandek: Melbourne Wednesday

[Yuval Legendtofski]

Jandek comes down under, he played at the Thornbury Theatre in Melbourne, a
beautful ballroom unlike the ballrooms in 'Last Year at Marienbad' or 'The
Shining' to a crowd
of about 150 hipsters who probably only found out about Jandek in the last 5
or so years. Interestingly not many people over 30 were there, remarkable
for a man of what, 62 years of age?

Jandek reminded me of Jim Jarmusch appearance wise, he was backed by David
Keenan (drums) and Heather Lee Murray (bass). No fanfare. Silence. Then
atonal strumming. Patty-patty drumming and lolling throbbing bass. Jandek as
a performer is one of the most hyper-real acts I've ever seen. A character
actor without a movie, his guitar drips forth feeble pronks, yelps and mush,
as bass plods and drums patty-pat. We have a street busker here in Melbourne
that plays plastic buckets who fit right into Jandeks fractal, random sonic
universe. Jandek seemed to be singing about some
Lovecraftian benevolent being. Reminded me alot of early, early Sonic Youth
and the freeform flow of Rudolph Grey's music. After about 60 minutes of the
rising and falling torpid surge, Jandek let the rhythm section lock into a
Rhohypnol groove, and then lurched into his end-of-the-road Mullah-call
harmonica playing. At that point the universe imploded, my digital clock
went blank, and Jandek had somehow, momentarily broken through the
space-time continuum.
-- 
"To be a man means constant revision like correcting a writing." -New York
fortune cookie
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