Rhys Chatham and Pan Sonic at Bar

Rhys Chatham and Pan Sonic at Bar - 9/10/06

I understand Rhys Chatham is meant to be some kind of foundational figure in the history of underground guitar luminaries, but I've never heard anything by him before. I can only judge this performance. It seemed like he got a bunch of young guys from some music school and trained them to play his compositions. There was something very fascist about the whole thing. It could hardly be considered an expressive performance. It was technically and compositionally very good, but I couldn't feel anything from them. It was like watching somebody count.
Pan Sonic was just a couple of guys fiddling with their knobs. They played synthesizers and noise boxes. I guess it was a best case scenerio for that type of thing. It was noisy and glitchy and cacophonic.
All told, it was a pretty heartless night.

Pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldangelmidnight/sets/72157594296352741/

etc.
http://www.myspace.com/rhyschatham
http://www.phinnweb.org/panasonic/