If you ever needed another excuse to hate Richard James, he gave out
plenty last night. I arrived in Philly ticketless since the show had long
sold out, but with word that I might be on the Aphex Twin's guestlist. I
had some doubts over whether or not this would happen so I'd bought money
along to try and pick up a ticket outside but it wasn't necessary, I was
on there. He took the stage at 8pm and played one of the most bizarre
sets I've ever had the pleasure to hear. It consisted almost entirely of
70's surf music, soundtracks/themes, supermarket electro, and cheesy synth
covers of popular tunes such as "Hello Dolly." Throughout the set there
was a low sustained bass rumble as the levels were pushed way up and
little in the way of mixing. For the mainpart, tracks crashed into each
other with no continuity and once or twice he let the needle drag around
on the bubbles on the outer rim of the turntable. People watching stood\
around, lighting up their watches to see what time it was, others sat
on the floor. Someone through a bottle towards the turntables. About 35
mins into his set, Richard moved from his kneeling position behind the
turntables and lay down to the side of them smoking a cigarette. He looked
at everyone standing around bored and he smiled, you could tell he having
the time of his life. For the last 20 mins he lay on the floor behind the
turntables, tapping his feet to the the music. The track playing ended,
another started, finished, and then on to another. He let this one record
keep playing for the remainder of his set until finally, he looked at his
watch, stood up, turned off the turntable so it ran down and walked off the
stage. It was quite a sight.
Bjork, of course, was fantastic and had an impressive band to back her
up. A good nights entertainment.
:: Alan M. Parry
:: fluid@hyperreal.com
:: <finger me for PGP key>
::
http://hyperreal.com/~fluid