In the style of Blowfish

We headed to Trixie’s Palace for Kids Like You and Me (KLYAM)‘s A Mouth Is A Mouth Noise Fest Part Seven. KLYAM has been putting on underground – quite literally – noise fests for a few years now so we thought we’d go check it out.

We were greeted by what appeared to be AMAM Noisefest performers sitting on the lawn outside of the house concert venue. These friendly folks informed us that there was free pizza and beer inside of the home. Somebody said that the kids putting on the show directed the bands to load in at 5 PM, but nobody actually showed up on time. Anyway, we waited around a bit for the show to start.

Soundcheck kicked things off. This band is comprised of Chris from KLYAM on vocals, Brian, who will be performing two more times tonight, on drums and G. Gordon Gritty on mini keyboard.  There is a repetitive synthesizer loop in the background while the trio is playing. They played some bizarre song with the lines “I WANT A MILF” repeated and then maybe a couple of other quick songs.

Next up were Lindie and Con Tex. Two really talented guitarists playing off of the other. They might have been playing two totally different melodies, but it really worked. Picture a 10 minute long instrumental passage smack dab in the middle of a The Clean pop song. Those perfect kind of vibes. They looked at each other and decided that the set was over. We think they should play much more often in the rock ‘n roll circuit!

Next up was Brian, also known as >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>, UP UP UP, arrows, the drummer of Johnnie and the Foodmasters, the drummer of Soundcheck, the noise guitarist in G. Gordon Gritty. Among other things. Up Up Up is an innovative noise guitarist who constructs his own pedals, guitars, and peripheral accessories. He has played at other noisefests before. This time it is just him on guitar and he plays a variety of instrumental surf classics. He introduces the set by saying something like it’s summer. His style of playing is pretty percussive and the sounds very wiry, clangy, and fuzzy. He deconstructs Dale with his own signature attack, but not to the point beyond recognition. This is great!

Next up was DJ Tomorrow’s Achievements. His vocal-only set was broken into a couple of segments. Progressively depressing per the speaker. The first was a group exercise: we were to find someone we didn’t know and tell them the best thing that happened today. The exercise was to take five minutes. We didn’t participate, but most people did. After that DJ moved into throat singing. Singing or noise making. A long fart type of noise. But other noises, too. Next, he told a story of a prisoner who ate his own shit and the high costs of maintaining prisons. The atmosphere did not lighten up as everyone paid close attention to the speaker.

Lobotomizer from Pawtucket took the stage after DJ. Lobotomizer has a large speaker and a vast array of electronics perched atop a keyboard stand. Turning knobs. Glitching out. It’s hard to say if there were individual songs, but it might be safe to assume something like that. So many different sounds. Back when we were going to noisefests in the ’90s, we would see performers do stuff like Lobotomizer. Almost really really subtle dance music now that we think of it.

Next up was Healers Co. A duo with both players on electronics and tiedye projections in the background. We’ve seen them before with drums and guitar, but this set is notably scarier, more atmospheric, and more one-with-nature. The cornerstone of Healers Co. is intimacy and the open invitation to let your mind to wander. They occupy a flexible position in the weird world noise universe. We sure will keep an eye on them.

G. Gordon Gritty was next and again they were rough. A three piece this time with Brian from before on noise guitar, a gentleman named Kyle on drums, and Gritty on bass and vocals. Interestingly enough, GGG did not utilize wireless systems to execute this performance, as he had in recent times. There was a cover of Black Lips “O Katrina” and a rapid-fire out of tune/time burst of one or two lines from a half dozen or so songs  before the band got all wild and switched instruments mid-jam while GGG improvised a bit “Like A Stripper In Vegas” and called it a night.

Skull Urethra , a project of VomitBitch, ended the night with a grotesque, one-of-a-kind set. There were about a half dozen members of this collective. Add to that a tarp of fake blood, partial nudity, wrestling, and haircuts. That was just the performance piece of it. The music side of it was well orchestrated and in the general pedigree of noise. The crowd seemed to be in on what was happening and some found themselves suddenly a part of the act. The people in the band, so to speak, were doing their thing in a half circle around the space. The chaos was controlled and once it was over, it was over, but we all had never seen anything like it. No amount of recorded audio could capture this. So you’d have to be there. Interesting, huh!