Kalte Sterne and Suspicious at Cafe 9

Kalte Sterne and Suspicious at Cafe 9 - 9/16/06

A night of convergence with a band from Germany with an English name and an American band with a German name; both bands sing bilingually.
I liked Kalte Sterne a bit more this time than the first. The sound was better, I could hear each part. The sing/chant lyrics came across better and I could hear how the keyboard and toy xylophone actually work with the songs. The performance seemed a bit more intense and present.
I think I actually preferred Suspicious at Alchemy. They're a band well suited to catastrophe. The fact that they were on edge made them a little more aggressive and work a little harder. At Cafe 9, they were just having fun. It was still a good show. They put down their guitars and came out into the audience a couple of times and danced on the bar and all.

Pictures:
http://flickr.com/photos/oldangelmidnight/sets/72157594296543313/

etc.
http://www.myspace.com/kaltesterne
http://www.myspace.com/suspiciousgirls

The Chuck Hestons and Suspicious at Alchemy

The Chuck Hestons and Suspicious at Alchemy - 9/13/06

These Wednesday nights at Alchemy are strange. It's always funny to see one of the regulars come in and look confused at all the weirdos.
The Uncomfortables played first. It was immemorable punk-aggregate stuff. The Presidential Targets played next. They seem like the kind of band that got together 30 years ago when they were teenagers and thought it would be fun to start a band, but never grew out of it. Adolescent humor and adolescent music.
Suspicious are two girls from Berlin, Germany who play guitar to a backing rhythm track. It was their first night on the American tour and they had trouble with the electrical conversion. Eventually, they got it together and played using borrowed amps, but still kept blowing out the p.a. In spite of all the trouble, they put on a pretty great show. It was punky new wave and girl-group pop with an industrial backbeat. They were aggressive and engaging and at one point, when the p.a. had blown, they insisted that DJ Eric "e-bomb" Bruce (aka Vince Vaughn*) play an X-Ray Spex song and they danced around on the bar, singing along.
I'm disappointed in New Haven as a whole for not showing more support for The Chuck Hestons. They're certainly one of the most creative and interesting bands around. For shame. They played last and pretty much played for me, the Suspicious girls and Eric Bruce. That didn't stop them from playing whole-heartedly, though. They played as well for nobody as they did when they packed Rudy's and I respect that.

* Is Vince Vaughn king of the douchebags, or is he a douchebag parodist? Is he promoting or mocking douchbaggery? Where does that leave The E-Bomb?

Pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldangelmidnight/sets/72157594296356980/

etc.
http://www.myspace.com/theuncomfortablesusa
http://www.myspace.com/presidentialtargets
http://www.myspace.com/suspiciousgirls
http://www.myspace.com/thechuckheston

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/

Humanoid and Kalte Sterne at Fuel

Humanoid and Kalte Sterne at Fuel - 9/7/06

It was billed as a "Private Party," but there were more people there than I've seen at a lot of public performances. Whenever I've been out by Fuel before, it's been closed so I'd never been inside. Nice, artsy, little coffeeshop.
I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Humanoid play acoustically. Warren played upright bass and Miller played pots and pans. It had a very european feel. They need a fiddle and a gypsy belly-dancer next time. Hearing them this way revealed the true musicality of the songs that's usually obfuscated by the tremendous volume and distortion.

It was Kalte Sterne's second show. They wear matching fox masks, ears and tails and dress in black. The music occurred to me as what garage music would sound like if the Germans had won the war. I don't know what that means, exactly, but it sounds good, anyway. There's a certain dourness to the music that isn't completely eliminated by the silliness of the presentation. It's good, I think, but not really exciting.


Other pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldangelmidnight/sets/72157594275205624/

etc.
http://www.myspace.com/humanoidsapiens
http://www.myspace.com/kaltesterne

Paul Belbusti and Naomi Sommers at the Space

Paul Belbusti and Naomi Sommers at the Space - 9/6/06

The highlight of Paul's performance was his final song. It was really the only one where he appeared to care. It was a cover of an old bluegrass song. Otherwise, this was mostly a substandard performance. There was nobody there and slowly, over the course of his set, the room filled with geriatric mutants awaiting Naomi Sommers. It was probably the greatest collective number of years the Space has ever seen. It was good to hear Paul do a couple of new songs, though.
Check out the video, anyway. "Watch Out for the Angry Crow."


Naomi Sommers plays suburban '60s folk and bluegrass, rather than dirty mountain folk and bluegrass. It's pretty unchallenging, but she has a nice voice. Apparently she comes from a bluegrass family. The old folks seemed to like it.


Pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldangelmidnight/sets/72157594275060033/

etc.
http://www.myspace.com/paulbelbusti
http://www.myspace.com/naomisommers