axons

 Axons played this Tuesday at Empty Bottle with Moritat. The two other bands I do regret missing and I intend to see still. But I was happy to arrive on time to see Axons. Something Kon from Moritat found amusing and perhaps...impressive was that I was on time at all. He has caught me arriving late to shows. I was so on time I didn't even walk all that fast from where I parked. And I layered on top of that these excellent conversations I have with Kon even as Adele sets up. ...Oh that is her off-stage name.  Axons is her stage name. That sounds like I'm trying to make it too exotic. Axons is the name of the band, and Adele is the sole member of it. Minimal and effortlessly dance-floor friendly. Each song reveals whole different sides, unexpected angles.
    Bastards and Gadolinium sound so very different from each other, they represent whole different ways she can go. The only thing that keeps getting telegraphed is a wide range and depth. She is easy to like.  Bastards comes at you like Rutger Hauer in Lady Hawke, taking mother fuckers out. It has this blusey primal pair of balls. This can be a battle cry of righteous anger. And let me stick this in, Ms Adele can easily hotwire Wonder Woman's invisible plane but she chose to be a Civil Rights lawyer when not playing Empty Bottle as Axons. Let me cut the analysis to just this on this one song, from me its from the point of view of someone with a short fuse for assholes. Hence the previous mention of Rutger Hauer..... Inter Vivos betrays such a wide range that it just can't be contained in just five songs,...... and Gadolinium.  There have been more gigs I missed from her since the one time at Township. And so I've been listening in complete awe the music I have of her. Adele was also at Hideout for Lycanthea....no, she was in the audience.....in casual conversation with Rebecca from Panda Riot. . And so that Tuesday she played from her new recorded work Unmanageable . I guess the songs that sounded unfamiliar to me live are what is in it. Eight songs, some that began their imprint live.
  On the way home from seeing Solemn Meant Walks is when I chose to first hear the CD Unmanageable. So this post is more about seeing it live. I'm taking my time with this new work. I just find myself wanting to find reasons to drive and to listen as I go from point A to B. Its one of those things that modernity lets you get away with.  And so I choose here to go on about the songs that already have been playing a lot in my head. Gadolinium, that one she played this last time at the Bottle. The recording of it sounds so minimal  and intimate like your dancing alone in your room to Cocteau Twins. Intimate as well as grand and brilliant. And so what a beautiful thing to hear it live. It blossoms as more dance floor friendly. The audience at Empty Bottle was very attentive. That crowd was hers. And let me say this, yeah lean in....the one other time I saw her at Township there were these assholes that said some sexist misogynistic shit that she can hear. The vibe at Empty Bottle just would not support that. This crowd was hers, you know. The girl has some stage Jedi presence.

Zig