More Fun In The No World.

I missed Gastric Female Reflex, The Rita, Demons, and Sickness. Mia and Jason reported that The Rita was the one, which doesn't surprise me. They don't make too many missteps on tape, so that wasn't a big surprise.

Slogun - I caught the last 10 minutes of Slogun and crew, but what a 10 minutes. Much hate was being spewed at the crowd by a revolving line of collaborators on the mike. The wall of sound behind them was pretty unstoppable. When it was all over they were booed, but I think that it actually might have been a respectful answer to their call out. In response to the boos the most vehement mikeman lept into the audience. I'm pretty sure that everybody moved out of his way. Ouch.

Religious Knives - I've discovered that one of the rules for my enjoyment of a set is I shouldn't be reminded of Ryan Adams. Religious Knives broke this rule when one of their intros sounded exactly the beginning of Adam's Burning Photographs. Totally distracting. They need some broken machines. I did, however, enjoy the parts that reminded me of Iron Butterfly. That's always good.

Ju Suk Reet Meate and Tom Recchion - There's one record in my collection that I turn to when I'm in a listening funk. It's Tom Recchion's Chaotica. He and Ju Suk Reet Meate of Smegma turned in a stellar set last night. The night before Smegma had thrown it down hard in the dj booth mixing some nasty ass hip-hop with P-Funk followed by the kind of singing and songwriting that John Ashcroft made famous. Tonight's performance was a tripping barrage of churning collage. Legendary status reinforced. Possibly the longest applause of the festival. Well deserved.

Keiji Haino - The dulcimer abuse was perfect in development and duration. Haino's guitar sounded like what it would be like if the earth's core knew how to play the instrument. Soaring and overwhelming. The sound manipulation and shrieking went on too long for my taste. I think that Haino took it where he wanted to. Much respect for that, but I think that I, along with the rest of the audience, could have taken about 15 minutes less of it.

Merzbow - Lived up to my expectations, but no "and then some." To be clear, my expectations were really high. Really high. Akita delivered in spades, and offered some nice twists and surprises. I was knocked out, but my last thought before I hit the floor was "Carlos Giffoni's set the night before was more thrilling."

Night 1

Night 2

Night 4