Chuck Hestons, F-Thndr, Wild Bill Firehands, Chris Arnott, xpunx at Nest

Chris Arnott, Wild Bill Firehands, F-Thndr, xpunx, and The Chuck Hestons at Nest - 11/11/06

It was my first show at Nest. I really enjoyed the space. It was an art gallery and a lot of people were there for some kind of reception, but the music was a lot more interesting. (goddamn Floatin' Fred and Ralph Ferruci and their goddamn' art.)



The New Haven Advocate's own Chris Arnott kicked off the evening playing solo ukelele, unamplified. Which was completely ridiculous in the huge room. I know the uke has gotten real hip recently, but I don't understand the appeal. No matter how good the instrument or the player is, it always sounds like a toy. I'm sure Arnott put a lot of thought into his work - I think I caught a couple of literary references in the lyrics - but really, the saving grace was the little girl dancing around in front of the stage.



Without need for a set change, Wild Bill Firehands started playing immediately after Arnott was finished. I was told I would get to see someone's hands on fire, but I was lied to. Instead I saw a guy play piano and guitar and sing to a recording of himself playing and singing all while controlling the lights and smoke machine with his feet. He insisted it was not karaoke. I insisted it was boring classic rock played by an egomaniac. He repeatedly played the wrong track or his equipment otherwise malfunctioned and he played for way too long and most people walked away. An element of note, though: He performed what may be the most obscene thing I've ever seen someone do live and in person. He had a song about a stilted lover that he sang to a mannequin on wheels. He sang to the mannequin and danced with it and he grabbed its breasts and it hit him and rolled away. He got on his knees and begged. He kicked and pounded the ground like a child and still the mannequin spurned him. The whole routine went on a bit too long and it got really creepy. Maybe he lit his hands on fire at the end of his act, but I had already walked away.



F-Thndr was a triumph of chaos and cacaphony. I've used the word bacchanalian to describe local chaos-merchants Bludrum before and I think it's equally applicable here. Unlike Bludrum, though, there are no detectable songs around which the chaos swirls. The members pound on home assembled instruments and junk while wearing homemade costumes and whatever ridiculous clothing they could find. If I thought for a moment they were taking the whole ordeal seriously, I would have found it unbearably pretentious, but I think they were all about playing up the absurdist anti-performance. The performance was not completely without structure. There was a clear leader. He was the first onstage and he conducted the scat/percussion call and response. He lead the group out of the performance room and into the main exhibition hall. And, he was the tallest of the lot. Though there were no songs, the performance flowed and each piece had a detectable rhythm. It was in the exhibition room that the performance was the most interesting. Clearly, the organizers did not expect this chaos to spill out and put the art at risk. Most of the attendees who weren't there for the performance kept their distance and looked on befuddled. The saving grace for the group was that some audience members did participate. It was very inclusive with instruments and props trading hands and performers wrestling with spectators. Yes, wrestling, it was a very physical event. Eventually, the drumming died down and all that was left was the sound of the leaf blower. With that, F-Thndr was through. What followed was the strange moment with the performers in their tattered costumes, some even stripped down to their underclothes, cleaning up the mess.



After F-Thndr, xpunx was a crippling disappointment. I was rendered inert and immobile by the lifeless monotony of their minimalist goth. the band was a couple of old guys with synthesizers. Every song seemed to have endlessly repeating chanted lyrics that, for some reason, the singer needed a lyric sheet to remember. I still have waking nightmares about the interminable x-x-x-pun-x x-x-x-pun-x chorus to one of the songs. Oddly, thanks to the unquenchable energy of the F-Thndr kids, this was probably the best response xpunx could hope for. All through the set, they had a small crowd mock-dancing to the nonsense. These guys really took the wind out of the sails of the show. A lot of people left and the crowd was thinned out prematurely.



You know it's an odd night when the most straightforward band playing is The Chuck Hestons. In contrast to the other groups, they seemed very rockish and almost traditional. It all went crazy toward the end, of course. They always hope to have some madness at the climax of their show. The stars aligned this night and they were provided with the perfect circumstances to see it come to fruition. The combination of still unexhausted F-Thndr members and very malleable environment allowed the show to come apart just right. Whether it was lead singer Chad pushing and stacking furniture and wearing the stage backdrop or the kid playing piano randomly off stage or whoever that was hitting guitarist Nick's strings with a drum stick, all participants seemed to be sharing an inspired moment. It all came to a head with drummer Joe doing a spontaneous percussion duet with somebody from the crowd as Chad packed up the gear and brought it out to the van.

All told, it was a great show, but poorly organized. I don't know if this was typical of shows at Nest, but I'll certainly return when I can. One of the organizers wrote about it here: http://www.agooart.com/news/NESTList.html

Pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldangelmidnight/sets/72157594384499088/

etc.
Chris Arnott
Wild Bill Firehands
http://www.myspace.com/fthndr
http://www.myspace.com/xpunx
http://www.myspace.com/thechuckhestons


I got a couple of videos, too:
A short sampling of F-Thndr:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvkm3sCOwMA

March of the Insignificant People by The Chuck Hestons:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYdQX_s_gqU