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Thursday, April 22, 2004
Short thoughts on the Squarepusher concert
Man, was I excited about that thing. Too bad it was lackluster.
The first act was DJ (something I don't remember). He played rave music. It wasn't very interesting.
The second act was Cassetteboy. They take sound clips of famous people and well-known songs and slice them up and put them back together into a collage of sex, drugs, and politics. The recordings they make were pretty entertaining: Harry Potter getting a blow job, George Bush saying he can't be trusted, Michael Jackson saying how much he "loves" little boys, etc. As a live act, it was pretty retarded. The two of them were in skeleton costumes, one with a George Bush mask, and one with a Tony Blair mask, dancing around on stage, pretending to have anal sex with each other, and pantomiming to the audio in the background. That was the performance. I think they just had their album playing straight through in the background.
Squarepusher had an interesting set, but I wasn't really in the mood for it. A lot of what he did was play bass with a lot of effects, and with his computer following what he played and harmonizing, triggering drum loops, etc. Technically, it was quite a feat. Aurally, it was really abrasive. Interesting, but painful. Call me a sinner, but I kept waiting for him to bust into something a little more catchy. Almost everything he played was at breakneck speed. Part of my disappointment was the venue, Antone's. It has very little room in front of the stage, so at least half of the people are standing way to the side (like me). My friends and I started out near the middle of the club, but we couldn't take all the (square)pushing that started before Squarepusher even came on. One of my friends got kicked in the head twice by a crowdsurfer.
Oh well, I can say that I was there, at least. I think I'll be seeing DJ Shadow at Stubb's tomorrow (along with Blackalicious and others). I think that will be a better time.
The first act was DJ (something I don't remember). He played rave music. It wasn't very interesting.
The second act was Cassetteboy. They take sound clips of famous people and well-known songs and slice them up and put them back together into a collage of sex, drugs, and politics. The recordings they make were pretty entertaining: Harry Potter getting a blow job, George Bush saying he can't be trusted, Michael Jackson saying how much he "loves" little boys, etc. As a live act, it was pretty retarded. The two of them were in skeleton costumes, one with a George Bush mask, and one with a Tony Blair mask, dancing around on stage, pretending to have anal sex with each other, and pantomiming to the audio in the background. That was the performance. I think they just had their album playing straight through in the background.
Squarepusher had an interesting set, but I wasn't really in the mood for it. A lot of what he did was play bass with a lot of effects, and with his computer following what he played and harmonizing, triggering drum loops, etc. Technically, it was quite a feat. Aurally, it was really abrasive. Interesting, but painful. Call me a sinner, but I kept waiting for him to bust into something a little more catchy. Almost everything he played was at breakneck speed. Part of my disappointment was the venue, Antone's. It has very little room in front of the stage, so at least half of the people are standing way to the side (like me). My friends and I started out near the middle of the club, but we couldn't take all the (square)pushing that started before Squarepusher even came on. One of my friends got kicked in the head twice by a crowdsurfer.
Oh well, I can say that I was there, at least. I think I'll be seeing DJ Shadow at Stubb's tomorrow (along with Blackalicious and others). I think that will be a better time.
