Acid Circus in Seattle? No way. How did this happen? And how was it going to turn out? Visited their website, listened to their tunes on Soundcloud and their podcast on Projektion. Read some more about Droid Behavior. Ah ha! So let's bring some of the West Coast sound, to the West Coast. Seattle, October 25th, 2009. I rolled into the Electric Tea Garden right around 12:20am. Same bouncer as the last time I went there to see Derek Plaslaiko at the Sweatbox afterhours for the Decibel Festival. One extra rule though, this time. There had been noise complaints, so if you were going to be outside, you had to be very, very quiet … |
||||||
|
The Music Kristina Childs was on right when I walked in. The last time I’d seen her play was maybe three years ago spinning some abstract ambient tunes at a venue I don’t remember. Since then, I’ve seen her walking around at events, but not heard her play. Her set this evening was from 11:30 until 1, so I only caught the last half hour or so – and I truly wish I would have been there at the beginning. It was a pretty self-conscious crowd with their feet glued to the dancefloor when I got there, the ratio of guys to girl at its typical techno slant of 50:1, and nobody had broken through the invisible barrier into that dangerous semi-circle in front of the DJ reserved for the people who belong there. But the music! Rowdy, multiple-tempo layers of grimy techno, whoa. I was set for the next 40 minutes. Awesome track selection and sequencing, straight-forward mixing, letting the music speak for itself. Tough, intelligent techno; melodic beats, breaks, fills and build-ups built into the tracks, one or two that I recognized for sure. When the music got going, Kristina’s stage presence was in full effect, too, dancing behind the decks with her red hair flying. Bring it. For her part of the evening, she was working with vinyl-control Serato on a Mac through a Pioneer DJM600. As much as I appreciate the precision of spinning CD’s, the value of seeing a DJ play a record on a turntable, even if it is just a control disc, is huge. Techno presentation - put the needle on the record!
Acid Circus jumped on right at 1 o’clock, shifting gears down a little bit from the Kristina’s peak-hour flavor and finding a deeper groove right away. The sound they present is hard to describe, other than by saying that its techno for techno-heads. It’s danceable, but it’s not really dance music. It’s usually not musically complicated, but the two brothers are constantly making changes to the effects processing, the samples, the layers, the hits, the rhythms; they pave a road of sound for you to follow, but it’s more like a path into a jungle rather than a highway to a destination. Their sound is primarily based on techno, but you can hear influence from other genres, and they make especially deep nods to bouncy Chicago house, old school electro, hip-hop and even some progressive melodic sound washes every once in a while. My only divergences from their set were that their semi-signature tone and timing house synth stabs on top of the techno-minimal percussion structure are sometimes a little too thought-provoking for me (think white toast and apricot jam with coconut sprinkles on top - that kind of thought-provoking); and at one point early in the show, everything got really stripped down, almost to just a drum line, and I lost my way. It was a little like getting trapped in a cave and feeling around for where to put my feet next. There were plenty of times I wished I could have just stood behind them while they were performing, too, to see what was happening on their computers. There were periods where a whole lot was going on musically, but all they were doing was pushing the channel levels on the mixer up and down, and there were other periods where they were doing all kinds of button pushing and knob-twisting, but the music didn’t seem to be changing much. Note that Acid Circus is a true live performance. Out in front of them, they each had a Mac and a Native Instruments Maschine controller. Both of their setups were connected to channels on an Allen & Heath Xone:92 mixer that was in between them. As far as I could tell, Vidal was running Ableton on his side and doing most of the mixer work. On the other side, Vangelis was running Traktor Pro, as well as working with an Elektron Machinedrum and an M-Audio Evolution. It was one of the more complicated hardware/software/midi setups I’ve seen, especially for two people to coordinate playing on at the same time. At one point I stopped dancing to paying attention and watch Vangelis working the drum sequencer on the fly. He was going through the drum sequences sample by sample and putting in and taking out hits for each drum as the sequence was playing. These are incredibly subtle, live changes, almost impossible to pick up on unless you see what the performer is doing and can key in on which sounds are changing as they go. It was a new experience for me to see this live. Nice. It was also an experience watching the two of them work together. When they were on, they were on. There were moments in the mix when the two of them would move together, unscripted, each working on their own devices, all four channels on the mixer bumping green and blue; moments when they weren’t talking, they just knew what was collectively going on. These were the moments that the crowd had the best interactions with the performance, when the vibe was at its best. These moments were the reason that you came to see Acid Circus. My knowledge of the gear they were using is pretty limited, and I have no idea their methodology, their planning, or even if they have either of those. But to my thinking, to have two artists synch that well together, I imagine that when technology catches up to what they are capable of as performers, producers and programmers, the techno world is going to get a full dose of what it mean to live inside of music. Watch out.
Jeromy Nail was the closer for the night, and after Acid Circus played a quick encore track, he started off was some dark, dirty, dancey techo. Rad. This is how we finish the night! But, about three tracks in, there was a stutter and he changed gears into more general house tunes. After that I lost the vibe. At 3:30 in the morning, when I’ve been sent on a journey into groove-driven techno, I want the closer to really explore the shadowy edges of what music is – I don’t want to head back to safe ground. This is when I want to hear you take some risks. The crowd was definitely into it though, so I glided around for a little longer and then rolled out at about 3:40.
|
||||||
|
The Show I like the Electric Tea Garden. It’s comfortable, intimate, there’s seating on one side of the place where it’s a little quieter; the candlelit art gallery, book-ish decorations are cool. I really like the fact that it stays open past 1:45, which has been a stranglehold on the Seattle music scene in more mainstream places for a while now. But I have some issues with the ETG, especially with an event like this. First of all, the sound. Part of what makes techno unique is its spectral depth, its textures, and its dynamics. To let techno breathe, you have to be able to produce the full frequency and dynamic range. You truly need the full 20Hz -20,000Hz audio range, and ideally, you should never have to turn your amps, processors, and mixers up to more than 50% of their power range. For karaoke bars and weddings you can cut corners. For hip-hop, rock, and top 40 music, the sound quality doesn’t really matter that much. For techno, the music is the sound quality. Many people will mistake 'loud' for 'good', and they’ll turn a system up to try to make it sound ‘better’. What happens is that it will actually sound worse. The midrange speakers will stress and start sound shrill (when the snare hits and vocals start to shriek and distort), and the bass will start to sound headachey and hollow. Yes, the volume goes up, but the energy level actually goes down, because the physical limiting from the speakers loses even more of the spectral range. You know when a sound system is being stressed because at that point, you have to shout to be able to be heard by the person right next to you. Listening to a full, clean soundsystem, the bass frequencies can rattle your teeth but you can still talk to the person next to you, the vocals will sound like someone is singing or talking, not shouting at you, and your ears won’t ring the next day. The sound that the venue provided for this show did not support the talent of the artists who performed. The volume levels were set right when Kristina was playing, but I watched someone (owner/promoter?) 15 minutes after Acid Circus came on turn the volume level up directly on the Xone:92 main out, and the music suffered for it the rest of the night. All the subbass frequencies disappeared, as that’s the first thing that happens when you push QSC and Mackie active speakers; the ‘smiley-face’ internal processing kicks in, and now you have what sounds like a big boombox. All sound is not created equal; you get what you pay for; don't buy a wedding dress at Wal-mart. Second, the lighting. What lighting, you say? You have a group named “Acid Circus”, which is one of the most visually appealing names I’ve ever heard, a week before Halloween, and the visuals at the venue consisted of turning off all of the overhead lights except a single red lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. That’s a shame. Having a cornerstone of the thriving Los Angeles techno scene come in and play like this is sort of like presenting someone gourmet food and fine wine on a paper plate and in a dirty styrofoam sippy cup. The actual quality of the food can be amazing, but the experience is not the same without the right presentation. Put the needle on the record! And lastly, for any more than a few dozen people present at a show, please, for the love of God, invest in some Port-o-Johns outside. Two single restrooms inside are a huge irritant, and you can look at the line of annoyed and fidgety people who spend a half hour each time they have to use a restroom, waiting, drinks in their hands, and know that something is functionally wrong. |
||||||
|
Ryan Xristopher’s Tiny Conclusion Overall, I had a great time. The booking was amazing, Kristina Childs and Acid Circus played fantastic music, and Jeromy Nail closed it down proper for the dance crowd. My only comment is that if you want to create something special at an event, there has to be a lot more attention paid to details. People can get so used to plastic sporks, they don’t know what else is out there; just wait until someone serves them with a silver spoon … |
||||||
|
-Ryan Xristopher |
Comments or corrections: email ryan.xristopher(at)gmail.com |