School of Seven Bells, Black Moth Super Rainbow – Live @ Rhythm Room

It’s not very often that a band captures my attention to the degree that both of the night’s bands have over the past year. It’s even more seldom when two such bands share the same stage. I didn’t realize that School of Seven Bells was touring with Black Moth so I was quite pleased when I arrived at the Rhythm Room and saw them on the bill (even though it seemed like a strange juxtaposition at first.) Like a Doublemint commercial, my night instantly doubled in pleasure and fun.

As usual at this venue, the opening act, Human Mirror Project, was a local band. A duo consisting of a drum kit and a computer, the music was very droney and spacey. Their songs were of the minimalist variety with lots of bleeps and bloops, squeaks and skronks. There were points during the set where I literally felt disoriented and slightly sick to my stomach. That’s powerful music. It didn’t seem to affect the painter working on a piece to the right of the stage. The physical effects of the music aside, I was not very impressed.

My attitude quickly changed however when School of Seven Bells took the stage. A trio consisting of two guitars and a small keyboard, their sound was much bigger than their number might indicate. A wash of melodic sound blended with the two-part female harmonies to create a dreamy, shoegaze atmosphere. Feedback, drone, or simple guitar lines connected almost all the songs, creating non-stop music throughout the set. Taken completely from their Alpinisms album, the nine songs spanned rock, dream-pop, and even a little new wave. The music was both lush and Lush-like. The musicians were intense and focused and there was little interaction with the audience. This however, was not a great loss as the music drew you in to such a degree that interaction was unnecessary.

As Black Moth Super Rainbow (BMSR) prepared to play, a video rant was projected onto the screen at the back of the stage. On it a guy talked about what a horrid band BMSR is, emphasizing the negative. Laughter spread through the audience as they caught on to the self-deprecating opening joke. It seemed like an unusual way to start a show, but I should have known, nothing about this band is usual. The kit drummer was dressed as a ninja, with only the eyes showing. The extremely tall keyboardist, Power Pill Fist, spent part of the set bent over his instruments, leaving them on occasion to take the electric bass from the bass player, Father Hummingbird, so he could play guitar. Another band member hovered over a set of analog electronic instruments I did not immediately recognize. Finally, Tobacco sat hunched and cross-legged on the floor, fidgeting with knobs and a sampler pad, while humbly singing through the vocoder microphone attached to his array. He did not move from sitting on the corner of the stage the entire show. The people in the back must have though the singing was coming from nowhere. As in the previous set, there was little in the way of interaction with the audience as the band lost themselves in their creations. A video of a crew scooping up road kill and other equally strange and disturbing images were projected onto the background screen throughout the show.

Opening with “Born on a Day the Sun Didn’t Shine,” they also played “Tooth Decay,” “Twin of Myself,” “Dark Bubbles,” “Sticky,” “American Face Dust,” and “Iron Lemonade,” all from Eating Us. Not content to just share their new stuff, they rocked “Melt Me,” “Sun Lips,” “Forever Heavy,” “Drippy Eye,” and “Caterpillar House” from Dandelion Gum. They also played several pieces from Drippers and Start a People as well as “Spiracle” from The House of Apples and Eyeballs. For those that care, the preceding recounting came from Tobacco’s set list, which I asked for as they walked off stage. He seemed slightly amused then informed me that the second half was “all out of order.”

Prior to the show, I was curious as to how the music would translate live. Not very danceable music, I spent most of the concert sitting to the side of the stage, watching the band in awe. It wasn’t so much the show as it was the skill and intensity with which they played their instruments (the strange videos helped too.) By the end of their encore, it all made sense: the music, the videos, the self-deprecating opening, and pretty much everything else about the band. Watching them practice their art, I finally got it. They are simply Discordian music nerds making music for Discordian music geeks like me and the rest of the packed house that turned out to see one of the more unique bands currently creating.

There’s something about live music that adds a new (some would say third) dimension to the recorded stuff. When said recordings get as much personal stereo time as both of tonight’s bands have, the live stuff can only enhance the experience, and enhanced it was. Listening to Eating Us on the way home I grokked it on a whole new level. Then again, the entire night was surreal enough, maybe it was all in my imagination. Fnord.

Comments

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.