High Strung Loner

I went to a local club called TwiRoPa last night to see Drums & Tuba, a band I like a lot but have never seen before. The space is really nice, but it was very empty. There were only about 35-40 people there.

At first I couldn't figure out why the sound board was on a table directly in front of the stage but it turned out that the opening act was a solo act called Micronaut. He walked up, pulled the table out a bit, lit a couple of candles and started playing. All he had was a small mixer, a weird LCD device I'd never seen before and a couple of pedals. His music was great. It's kind of what I always thought dance music would sound like in 2005. The beats sounded nothing like normal drums and there were a lot of loops with tiny hints of melodies completely distorted. He used some spoken word loops but not enough of them, I thought. There was no singing or samples of fat, black women doing disco classics, thank god. It was pretty much the polar opposite of the collection of Depeche Mode remixes I listened to on the way there and back. On the minus side, there were no real transitions between songs besides some droning noises and the set had no real arc or drama. I'd go see him again, though, any time. I looked him up after I got home and it turns out he's a teeny bit famous.

Since Micronaut only had to pack his stuff into a couple of small suitcases, there was only about a ten minute break before Drums & Tuba began, again with no introduction. There are three of them: a guitarist, a drummer and a tuba player. They were so much bettter than their records, it's almost hard to believe—incredibly powerful. They very obviously enjoy what they're doing, too. It shows clearly in their facial expressions and visual interactions. They play a kind of rock/jazz fusion I normally hate but they give it a hard edge with some help from machines looping, echoing and distorting the instrument sounds. It was fascinating to watch how they did some of the stuff. For instance, the guitarist would play a riff repeatedly and the tuba player would use something to capture it. Then I'd notice I could still hear the riff but the guy was actually playing something else. It was amazing. Things would suddenly start playing backwards or change tone and sond like they were playing on the other side of a huge hall or get really fuzzy. Since the "bassist" was actually playing a tuba and not a bass, he had a hand free all the time to fuck around with the machines. I guess this makes the tuba thing more than just a gimmick but maybe not. In any case they sounded fine and, after five albums, I guess it's working for them. I know it worked for me, so who cares?

The guitarist, by the way, was very cute. Aside from the hotness factor he was also very animated and the most fun to watch.

I'm sorry I won't be in town next Wednesday to see them again. Good luck in Europe, guys.