I just got back from seeing Autechre and the Autechrettes (Rob Hall,
Russell Haswell, Curtis Roads, etc.) in L.A. as well. (Hi Peter, Yulia,
and other homies).
Overall, I'm super glad I made the effort to see this show a second time.
There actually were enough differences between the Seattle and L.A. shows
to make it worthwhile to catch both.
The El Rey, surprisingly enough, got the sound mix right this time. A
more crisp, sharp, trebley mix than the one offered at Seattle's Showbox.
Also, the mega-posh light setup at the El Rey was used to full effect
(except for the Autechre show, where I guess Rob and Sean asked to not
have any blinking lights) As a result, the Dj sets and the performances
had different feels. Things just seemed for crisp, upbeat, and "happy" at
the L.A. show, whereas the mood seemed a bit darker at the Seattle show.
Curtis Roads was the local opener for this show. Unfortunately, I didn't
catch the entire set, but his performance (well, actually him and a
friend) was definitely on the academic side... Stockhausen, Edgar Varese,
Schoenberg (sp?), Conlon Nancarrow, and perhaps Bruce Gilbert would make
fair points of reference. I was told he was a professor at UC Santa
Barbara, and once at MIT(?)... Anyway, he got quite a good reaction at
the show.
Rob Hall's set was similar to the one in Seattle. Synthy electro dance
music.. but he played New Order's "The Beach" tonight, whereas he didn't
in Seattle.
The crowd really dug Russell's set (well, most of the crowd), especially
during the Torture Garden/Boredoms/grindcore songs. Russell got an insane
light show.
Autechre did the same main 4 songs... the first two being more lulling and
pulsing, and the latter two being utter micro-edit mindfucks. But they
sounded different enough from the Seattle live versions such that I could
convince myself they were definitely *not* hiding a DAT player playing the
show underneath their gear. :) Again, maybe it's because I was up front
at the more bassy Showbox, and I was in the back at the more trebley El
Rey, but there was more highend and upbeatness during the songs for the
L.A. show than Seattle -- despite the lack of light shows, and sometimes
lack of sight of Sean or Rob. (One of them was on his knees out of view
from the audience for most of the second half, and BOTH were not visible
for the transition between the 3rd and 4th songs)
The one major similarity was the SCORES of people leaving the floor during
Autechre's set. (which supplemented some additional entertainment for me
:) I'd say for either show, around 50% of the floor cleared
out from start to finish of Ae's set. I have to ask, when Throbbing
Gristle played L.A. back in 1981, did that many people leave their set in
such a short amount of time? Has this been happening at all of the
previous Autechre shows?
I never cared too much for Autechre until now. "Confield", "Peel Sessions
2", and the current tour have made me a fan. What they're doing musically
is more akin to a new instrumental take on early Cabaret Voltaire, early
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, Throbbing Gristle, Coil, Nurse With
Wound, and early Severed Heads, than any of what are popularly considered
Autechre's contemporaries -- though if so, the closest I could think of
being Phthalocyanine.
Again, I HIGHLY recommend catching this show when it comes to your town --
especially if you dig the recent Autechre material.
It's been to great to meet some new people at both shows...(Sally and gang
in Seattle, Peter and Yulia in L.A.)
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Brian MacDonald <brianm@kuci.org>
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