Ringo Deathstarr

  I had the night loosely planned. Shit always happens that can kill them plans, especially if you are kinda inflexible about them. Sunday night.....See Panda Riot open the night for Ringo Deathstarr, and after go to Berlin and dance to one of Sarah and Philly DJ nights.  I missed the Panda's set entirely but I made it on time to see the middle act that was great but for the moment the name escapes. I was later invited to the Panda's place for an after thing. .....Yay!!!! Daniel and Elliot from Ringo Deathstarr went there. That was a nice time, .....and completely unexpected. And briefly I got to hear some new Panda Riot material. It feels awesome when you are suddenly included into these moments.
  So I at least made it for the entire set of Ringo Deathstarr. And as usual I get right in front. Part of the mission was to buy the CD God's Dream, the cover of which has Alex Gehring, the bass player, pointing a shotgun straight to the fucking nads. It's brilliant, powerful. Behind her nothing but dark forest green. Alright, fair enough there is light behind her. But still behind her hostile wilderness. Hmmm.....sorry. The picture just about sells you a whole narrative around it, like a cult movie. And putting the whole scene back together becomes more painting than picture. I binge on some live shows of theirs, and some official videos. Summer Time especially takes me like a fucking black hole. It's sweet, and just a little mysterious....hmmm  and nostalgic.  That is what put them on my radar, what made me pursue them. Alex sings what sounds like "she was mine once upon a time, she was mine, everything was fine"....and that's it, I was a fan.
   Aggressive and urgent is their pace. Hmmmmm......They just are. Shoegaze heroes...fuck it. I totally don't like over using the fucking shoegaze crayon....but, it was like holding my fucking breath. I could not do it. They're fuzzy but they are taking you somewhere.  The track with the sharpest left turn is Flower Power. That guitar solo that almost sounds like a piano, just has you slowly ascending stairs in this angelic pace until out of the blue it suddenly pics up that aggressive pace. GOD'S DREAM has the rolling bass of Alex allow for the lead guitar to shimmer away in a sprint.
 I mean at first the slow guitar just sounds like they superimposed it at random. A completely separate track but slowly the two segments made sense to me. Their slow riding continues with Shut Your Eyes. You can almost hear them chant "shut your mother-fucking eyes" and you kinda want to. Their whisper male and female voices become part of what I anticipate from Ringo D.  They are from Texas,..Austin. I don't usually think of Ringo Deathstarr and shotguns in the same sentence....the same fucking thought.  They've toured Chile, Japan. The picture of Alex and the shotgun is brilliant! She looks like Bonnie......
  Last year when they were touring for God's Dream I decided to buy their shirt. I wanted to hear something on the way home. And the impressions of the live show rapidly obscure and warp. Writing it down even with the CD to take home and listen whenever is a bit like writing down a dream.  So forgive these late impressions. Oh here's something! Brian from Panda Riot has this camera that takes 3-D Matrix style pictures with film. Out of the blue he had me take pictures of RD as they perform. It felt great that they asked me to to this. I don't know how they came out but if I'm going to waste film....its mostly gonna be on Alex Gehring the bassist. She's fucking beautiful, what do y'all expect from me?! In the show Elliot's fuzzy hair only made it easier to gaze at Ms Alex.

It was great of Panda Riot, hmm for letting me have a go on that camera. These here are from my own. As I write I research about them and like them more in the process. I now only have GOD'S DREAM and Colour Trip. That leaves out a lot and I would like to collect all their music.
Zig

Gel Set and HIDE

  I saw Hide and Gel Set at Empty Bottle at a Free Monday. Hmmm, well, at least that is how I recall it. They both are from Chicago. Hide seem mysterious, ....they remind me of Die Form. Its a wonder they are not far more known than they are. I downloaded two songs and they are fabulous right. But right now .....Heather is gorgeous on stage. But I would not remember that if I did not like the music. The fucking music!!!! They are somehow tapped in and just share this hard, dark electronic, industrial vibe....like Die Form. They don't pander, they share. Pandering just telegraphs. They are and create what you like before you know you like it. So I said mysterious, right? Heather bounces and writhes around the stage in a deep fog elusive even as she performs right in front of you.     This is the third time I see them.
  Gel Set opened and she was fabulous.  Her song writing is also very impressive. I'm trying to say about Gel Set......she drops you in the middle of the trance. Like an untimely interruption to a meditation, dropping in the moment, and there's like no fucking slow lane in the high way. You just have to work for this hypnotic euphoric feel. I'm glad she is from Chicago.
   The two bands that I caught, basically have it deep within their being that intangible knowledge of what compels people to dance. And Gel Set is a vastly different animal from Hide. Gel Set is cleaner sounding and Hide is more harsh-abrasive. I feel that Gel Set can produce that feeling of being in the middle of the night. She does not need to work into that midpoint. She just puts you there. Drops you in.  The beginning of the night seeming far distant but so is the end, distant. In the tunnel well before the light. The way some playwrights or writers can put you in the middle of a scene and right from there you are hooked to the action of the story. This is for me what Gel Set does in her music.  For me she seems  aware of conventions.....all these ways of making you fucking move and then does it some way you still did not expect and it hits you in the front like a truck, and that last line I would apply to Hide as well. You know with one song the depth and the breath of what they are capable of. One song and I feel, I know this is a brilliant songwriter, and this is a feeling I also have of both. And as Gel Set is on stage in full view, Hide merges from and into the fog. Vicious and mysterious, Heather is all over the place. Beautiful, dark and intimidating.
Zig

The fog made pictures difficult to take. This is no complaint. For me this is part of the mysterious. The fog is indeed part of the performance. Another veil to wear. Indeed Heather came out with a veil to cover her face before taking it off.

rhythm of cruelty

  At this point this german expressionist, magical realism inspired memory will only place them with local familiar bands at Burlington, far earlier than this post for it. . I bought their record. They are from Canada. They are fast,  bassy....its the bass that is the lean and bouncy cardio engine. The voice has this distant all over impression,  almost breathy. If earlier perhaps this post would also include an impression of the audience that night. And now now the official story will for sure have this Mexican noir, David Lynchian vibe. Its a tall order yes, but it can be done. RoC is just dark and grey enough for it, and unpretentious, at ease around a grey urban landscape.  Bright, sunny and cheery and energetic like say Mates Of State is not what Rhythm Of Cruelty do. Same forward-leaning urgency but the tires are made to run on different terrain. Like a bouncy death rock track. Brandi Strauss is the voice and plays bass.

I already like hearing bass. I think its the best fucking instrument ever. Its the foundation, its the axe chopping down a path. One looks powerful when wielding it. And here you see Brandi building this foundation, playing this pulse. Hmmm, I don't actually recall a drummer for this. It was Ms Brandi and someone else.  It has its goth spooky engine down. And Ms Brandi doing it without even the black nail polish. Her voice can at once sound very present or very distant. It guides the feeling of wonder which can take flight and observe fast, or stroll and take its time like that. And its grey, its nasty, its Ghost Adventures with a fucking go cart and cameras.  I say gothic, and grey. It's the spookiness that does not take itself that seriously. Its dark-casual. Here comes Ms Brandi without even black nail polish.
Zig

beat drun juel

  Ah yes, they played before Sleepy Kitty. I caught their set. I'm already a fan and I caught their set. I have already downloaded and listened to them live. I took home this cool grey shirt of theirs. All these things reinforce a memory, to a set of memories. By way of Moritat I am a fan of Beat Drun Juel. They are from Chicago. As I research more, I like them more.  The girl is a guitar player's love child. Guitar playing is a studied passion. I think she was into playing guitar before singing.
  You all need to see Ms Pasty Face play solo with this song Satisfy. Its deep, its powerful, confident like a Billy Idol snarl. I'm almost sure I saw this play at Cole's when she had no choice but to go it alone. It is deep, it is beyond the names we can call her, but.......I get a cascade flash reminder of PJ Harvey. We can give PJ a break y'all.     More research, more PJ and 90's comparisons! Perhaps that is why BDJ are just right with me. 90's lens is still a flexible thing. For me I can firmly weigh it with 90's bands all fucking day without fear of stigmatizing BDJ as sounding a certain way. The bloody decade has yet to find its costume. Its not like I'm calling it shoegaze.   Awful World bluesy enough and you are set up for the suspenseful I See You.
    The Ken Russell lens is going recall the memory of seeing them this a certain way. I gotta put together this set I caught at Empty Bottle before Sleepy Kitty. These songs from Off Your Face is hitting me like a ton of fucking bricks. And then see how this ignites a certain way the memory of seeing them the few times that I can. All these spark impressions invite more time with the music. Awful World is one of them songs that I can hear again a few times, and yet does not become the one song on the EP. You are just set up for the next. You become a fan of them over more than one track. AAB SOCEC had me in less than 40 seconds. The shorter tracks are potent as well. And then you can't help but want to hear more from them. And now I'm going to to take a moment to think "wow, I've met them!".....This is a Chicago band, I got to meet her after Coles. Beat Drun Juel began a night finished with Cross Record. .
  Pasty Face has a commanding dominant-mysterious, casual stage presence, she just has it. As I read about her, that eventually influences how I see her. I'm aware how great and practiced a guitar player she is. That means to those moments when its just her and that guitar, a special observation. I mean it can hit you really hard when you see them live, and the download EP is doing its damage and leaving an imprint. That can also hit on its own but....I am happy to now be a fan of Beat Drun Juel. I am happy to have seen them just before seeing Cross Record on a different venue a long walk away. Off Your Face, bluesy, timeless....yeah I think so.. The reason why I think we go to PJ for comparison and not go for something more contemporary is this timeless quality. Ms Pasty Face like PJ has her blues down. Its not generic,  or so weathered that it too easily telegraphs. On them Beat Drun Juel,  colors of blues, the whole spectrum they can wear as authority.
Zig