Well, after a week full of shows we are back in the real world and excited about all the new friends/faces/ears encountered! Monday 11/30 brought Chiptune 2 @ The Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge MA, the sequel to BOSTON8BIT's first Chiptune event at Felt back in October. The Middlesex is an awesome venue, with low (and movable) booth seating in a good portion of the floor area. After a relatively painless setup, I was happy to hear that Vickysbooties and Beware from 8bitcollective.com were coming out to open the show. Awesome! Vickysbooties' set was glitchtastic, while Beware stood on the right side of epic on some of his tracks.
After their introduction, Cathode Rays showed us all what it's like to sync (excellent) videos with Ableton Live, belting out a slew of tunes that coincided with some awesome visuals. Cathode Rays consists of Avi Paul Weinstein (guitar) and Rob Lynch (Super NES pad, laptop), this being their first and very successful time playing with BOSTON8BIT. Following them was BR1GHT PR1MATE, who were lucky enough to have me doofus-rig an empty VGA cable to the laptop that would have supplied them with visual goodness. No visual goodness. OOPS, sucks to be me. At any rate, they played a solid set and I'm really starting to dig the dynamic that they're building as they progress on and on. Disasterpeace was our headliner regardless of if I played last or not, simply for the reason that his guitar riffs over spaced-out square wave goodness and noisy/punchy drums are sounds to behold. Time signatures were being destroyed left and right, with only sweet chip music to fill the void left behind. Disasterpeace is playing Blip Festival 2009, for which I am very proud and jealous at the same time. KICK BUTTZ :-)
Thursday night Active Knowledge and Bubblegum Octopus joined forces with Owen McGarry's duo project, Machinery of Nature to play a house party in Sudbury MA. While I didn't really know what to expect, we were not disappointed and those in attendance brought more energy than I've ever seen while playing before! Machinery of Nature consists of Owen on Gameboy/keytar and his pal Chris on a sick electronic drum kit - check out the song 'Leviathan' in the video playlist below, you won't be disappointed. I got down with some tracks once they were finished, and dragged my set out as long as possible while waiting for Matt (Bubblegum Octopus!) to arrive. Once he was finally out of awful traffic between here and NJ, he arrived at the homestead and got down with the business (and the Christmas lights). The show carried on into the night, after which BgO and myself packed up to head to Salem for SCENE PARTY #2.
S.C.E.N.E. is an initiative that's headed by Scott Buchanan, a regular in the Salem music scene that contributes in a large way to its diversity. It stands for the Salem Chiptune, Electronica and Noise Extravaganza, which is an all-day festival Scott has been planning for early Fall of 2010. The idea to blend chiptune acts with experimental/noise acts is a fantastic one, and there are plenty that hope it will lead to a blending of genres and an acceptance of one that's in its awkward transition phase from infancy to toddler...ship I suppose. SCENE Party #2 was the second build-up party that Scott put on in anticipation of the full event, with the first one featuring Yatagarasu and various acts from in/around the area. The second one consisted of DJ sets by Moon Climb the Wall in-between the scheduled acts. Computer at Sea's Galen Richmond (from Portland, ME) brought an amazing assortment of glitched out, circuit-bent equipment and showed us all how it's possible to create fantastic, melodic songs with equipment that intentionally borders on being broken! BR1GHT PR1MATE showed up to fill a slot for Nuda Veritas (who fell ill), and did not disappoint with a full set that meshed well with the visuals being put out by VJ Beyonder.
This is where the camera angle changes and I take an aside to explain how awesome VJ Beyonder is. At first, there was no expectation that he was going to be involved with the show - but hours before the event began he got in touch, and offered to provide visual art for all of the acts involved. Let me be perfectly clear, these visuals were some of the most amazing things I've ever seen projected. Surreal environmental loops twisted with commercials/abstract shapes/everything under the sun were shot all over the walls, it was really a huge boost to the energy that was already in the room. Beyonder is from central MA, and if you're ever looking to book someone for visuals you should probably look his way. Just sayin'.
So after BR1GHT PR1MATE, it was time for some more Bubblegum Octopus, who put on a set full of energetic bursts and freakout songs. I swear that every time I listen to his music, I hear more and more of what's going on in them and I'm always pleased. The crowd was feeling the show for the most part, and actually getting into it which is more than I can say for some crowds that insist on only shuffling their feet. We're there to let you cut loose, and it's so much easier to do that when you're actually cutting loose! :-) Anyway, I got up around 11:30 and began my set, which was honestly the best one I've ever played because of how receptive the crowd was. Everyone was having a good time, a friend decided to cut a little loose on the mic during 'Mind Zone', my space helmet was commandeered by another - as each song went by, I felt the smiles getting bigger and bigger until all of the sudden it was time to wind down with another DJ set by MCTW. All in all, a fantastic night that I can only hope is an accurate predictor of how SCENE 2010 will unfold. :-)
Well, this turned out to be quite the post - I'll keep from making it too much longer, but stay tuned for more late-Jan/early-Feb activity once the holidays have come and gone. We've got some big things in the pipeline that I can't wait to get cracking on, so get in touch if you're interested in playing a BOSTON8BIT show or would like to help out in any way! Right now, we're doing this for the love of it and any help from folks goes a long way. Happy holidays, everyone!
Cheers,
-Chris
