First up was "a short installation/performance by Echo-Toll". Um, OK, this was very uh, interesting, if not a bit hard to describe. Two folks on stage - one on laptop/synth, the other on shovel. No, i am not kidding. To be fair, he also fiddled around with various pieces of noise-generating equipment on the stage, but he loved that damn shovel. Most of the performance was spent demonstrating his considerable digging skills, often in slow-motion (so we could really study his technique?), sometimes wif farmer's hat on, sometimes wif it off (get it? yea, me neither). The soundtrack to all this was the recorded sounds of cats being tortured, which emanated from the laptop (i think). anyhows, the performance was not at all "short", i'm afraid, as it took forever to dig that goddam hole (cursed black gumbo!). This was definitely Art, baby, wif a capital A.
Dear, Human was up next. Totally instrumental band - but not the GYBE, Explosions in the Sky ambient-type stuff. These guys do the whole "every-member-of-the-band-play-as-many-frickin-notes-as-you-can-in-the-next-four-minutes", math-rock kinda stuff. They obviously were talented, and if you like that sort of thing, you should check them out. not really my bag. i stared at the gal in the white shorts the whole time (sorry).
Sleep Whale headlined. They've expanded to four members since i saw them last, which has rounded out their sound quite nicely. very nice, soothing set.
