I received a last min ticket from @artsdigitalera (tx!) so didn't arrive until about 10pm. rob hall was playing. I liked his set - thought it was quite varied, so there was something for everyone. it seemed to be a mixed, older crowd so I liked that too. I thought he was playing tracks going backwards in time. dubstep -> tech -> breakbeat -> acid house etc so I liked that too.
went downstairs to the side of the stage to hear Autechre. I found myself standing, swaying more like it, in the spot where all the speaker air aligned and it was sending electric shocks through my arms, legs and face - cheeks & nose. lips were vibrating. base of my throat was constricting - I could feel this when I moved to other places, but not the feelings in the rest of my body. I could feel puffs of air going up my jeans and jumper sleeves, and with every beat of the heavy bass it was giving me a shock. it felt like a tens machine had been hooked up to the line out and was sending pulses into the floor & conducting through my shoes with every beat. I showed a few other people the spot and they felt it too. one girl told me it sounded better up the front, in front of the speaker, but that was too loud so I moved back to the other spot where it was less loud (if that's possible). at times it made me feel a bit sick. my nose was running. I had to keep moving away, but I had to keep moving back too. it was the most physiological reaction to a music performance I'd ever felt at a gig (& prob in my life, let alone at a gig) I was thinking that some of those frequencies must be borderline legal?? my friend's dave & murray mentioned there was a band that plays tones/frequencies that cause adverse bodily functions. I just kept thinking of an old Get Smart episode where they'd played tones to blow up or interrogate one of the russian spies - or something like that, I forget the actual details, but I remember seeing an old ep like that when I was a child and wondering how sound could do that.
http://blip.tv/file/3686967 has a video taken throughout the night. ~ 1min of rob hall & ~ 5mins of autechre. it's from my phone cam so not the best quality, and autechre played in the dark, except for the lights of the bar, which I filmed to get some focus. it seemed to me like they were doing a southern cross constellation tour - playing under the constellation glow of the apple logos and desk monitor lights. from the side I could faintly see one of the guys from the glow of light from his mac book pro.
so, for a performance I didn't think I'd get to see as I hadn't pre-planned getting a ticket, it was a great night - a very physical performance/experience for me. I slept & dreamt so well afterwards too.
I had hoped to make it to Graham St John's book launch in st peters though I missed that. there were so many things on last night - it was one of those nights with too much choice so I almost stayed home, except for the ticket offer that made me leave the house.
I have some of Autechre's early albums (1990s vintage) - might need to check out their new one too
-- posted as an email reply to autechre thread on clan-l
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