Black History Moth: Tourspiel
It had been months since I took Black History Moth out on the road, and since last year's week-long jaunt with Yellow Crystal Star was such a prime illustration of musical symbiosis and telepathy, why not go for an aught-seven repeat? I jumped on three of Mark's East Coast dates: Chapel Hill, D.C., and Brooklyn, with a day's repost in Blacksburg between the first two dates. Krishna, travelling with Mark as 'The Ear is the Brain', participated in two of the Moth/Star shows. We also met up with Moth alum Nat Gaertner in D.C.
But first things first: I met Mark and Krishna in Chapel Hill and loaded equipment into the Nightlight, a sort of bookstore/thrift store/bar/venue space. For this performance I experimented with my solo percussive ritual set... gongs, bells, cymbals, bowls, flutes. I had been warned that the Nightlight space was haunted with ageless spirits and strange poltergeists. All I know is that parts of the performance felt strangely distant, as if i was being controlled by outer (or maybe far far inner) forces. Strange vibrations. Made for an intense show. Mark's set was a real brain-melt: For the tour he had prepared a soundtrack to two in-sync silent films. It's certainly the most focused and epic thing I've ever heard coming from his Sunn Beta cab. Only bummer? Soundman butting in during the last crucial moments and fucking with the P.A. volume. Mark was understandably pissed and the evening ended on a somewhat sour note. Then packing... Waffle House... driving... so much driving.
D.C. was a much more friendly affair. We met up with Nat and rehearsed for a sort of improv quartet blowout under the name 'Psychic Supper in the Cosmic Cafeteria.' Don't ask. Scott and co. at 611 Florida made us feel quite at home and our performance was a bombastic fuck-all of wrist-flying guitar climbs and drums-down-the-stairs avalanche. All other acts were great. Nick from Jackie-o MF, Nick Shallace, Mike Tamburo, and others. Fine stuff, fine stuff. And cheap Thai food!
What to say about Brooklyn? We puttered into town in plenty of time to get to dumbo park for the Boredoms 77-drummer extravaganza, but alas, cops were on site shooing the drooling eYe worshippers away. "Park's full, go home." Bullshit. But whatever. I think there'll be some sort of hi-production value DVD out at some point... Make sure you do a search for Andrew W.K.'s showtime getup. Wonderful. Goodbye, Blue Monday was the site of our show that evening: a thrift/junk store + bar + stage in the heart of Bushwick. Dollar PBRs, barbecue out back with the sculpture garden. Not bad, not bad. lots of acts, including two others that were also from Mark's area of Florida. How strange... No quartet blowout tonight: Moth's set was a Nathan/Nat duo that was probably the highlight of our entire trip. We experimented with some start/stop improv trading, Motorik noise jamz, and a surprisingly successful synth drone/sruti/gong/vocal o-mind trip. Whooda thunk it. Mark blew minds with his solo set, no surprise there. Met a nice sax player, did some improv with a gong and a pedal... Memories of that are hazy. And hot. It's warm this time of year, yknow.
And that's it really. The next day we romped around the city and checked out mondo Kim's before getting the hell out of Dodge and back onto the turnpike where we were soundly violated time and time again by outrageous toll fees. Only in Delaware could you get charged to enter AND leave the state.
And on that note: Make sure to bug this site about getting your very own copy of 'Sapience', the bhm + ycs tour cdr, (Ed. note: Sapience is available here) each handmade at Pretend Art Industries. 'Sapience' is a collaborative jam between Mark and I recorded at the Birmingham stop of last year's tour. A real burner, that one. One of the best things we've put down, I'd say.
don't sleeeeeeeep..........................
-n
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