Uplated Bedate
Ok, so, I haven't posted about my little trip that I took two weekends ago. Here goes before it's three.
Lianne and I were going down to see the "How to Destroy the Universe - Part 5" noise/weird music festival on Friday the 3rd in Seattle. Put on by Mobilization, F-SPACE's label, http://www.mobilization.com/, and the lineup features them along with Jarboe (late of the Swans) and Blixa Bargeld doing a rare solo vocal performance.
We were going to go via the Port Angeles ferry and the Bainbridge Island ferry to get there. However, I had forgotten that the PA ferry has an annual two-week refit period, which ended on February 5. So, I went to Seattle on my own on Saturday on the bus to see them. I was supposed to meet Lissa in downtown Seattle at 4:30 after she got off work at the hospital, so we would have time to talk and eat dinner before the show.
Famous last words - this was the single worst trip I've ever had to the USA by bus. I took the PCL bus to Vancouver to catch the connecting bus to Seattle. There was constructionon the other side of the Massey Tunnel so I missed the bus that would have gotten me into Seattle at 3:30 by 20 minutes. The next bus would get me there at 7:30, not so bad since I wouldn't miss the show anyway. I waited around for an hour or two, got on the 3:15 bus, and as soon as we left Vancouver proper things slowed to a crawl. Some kind of early rush hour traffic and huge construction meant the bus slowed...to...a...walk.
We made it to the border about 6:00. Then we waited for 20 minutes while the bus ahead of us was cleared by the US customs guards. By 6:30 I am in a lineup with everyone else while a drug dog is sniffing at my (and everyone else's, I don't do that stuff) crotch. I draw this little Filipino g=border guard guy, he looks like a determined hamster with tattoos. He hassles me over the nature of my bus ticket, and demands that I prove that I'm not going to stay in the USA forever. I prove to him I have a good job and a house in Victoria, he wanders over to Immigration, can't catch the eye of whoever he wanted to send to harass me next and then says, "OK you can go." Then they X-ray my bag (luckily I didn't have to 'splain all those little metal castings) and I go wait on the bus some more. Or rather, wait until we are told we can wait on the bus some more. There is no telephone and while there may be washrooms in the building, they are for the people who work there, not pass through there.
We get to Bellingham about 7:15. Drain the lizard at the train/bus station (Oh yeah, Vancouver and Seattle are both major cities of about 1.5 million each, both major ports and business centres, but there is ONE TRAIN a day between the two cities, and even then it's usually a bus. Riddle me that.). Try to call Lissa again to tell her I'll be late, no dice. Finally we pull into the Seattle bus station after 9:15!
Thankfully it was just a few blocks to the venue, I get in and get my ticket at the Will Call, they show me where I'm supposed to sit and there's Lissa! She did the smart thing and wandered around until showtime, then went and asked for her ticket (under my name) at the Will Call.
So, I got to hear the last 4 minutes of F-SPACE's set, a marvellously noisy version of "Through The Night Slowly". Then after a short break, Blixa Bargeld did his solo performance "Rede/Speech", really good, such a clever and intelligent person he seems. He was working with some electronic delay machines that stored up to 30 seconds of his voice, then he would actuate them, do effects or cut them off with foot pedals. When he did his screaming and put it on reverb, you could almost feel your brain moving around in your cranium from the vibrations! The venue (the Triple Door) had great acoustics and was technically flawless, by the way.
Later I go back to the merch table and find Ethan, Scott and Aleph of F-SPACE, congratulate them, and give them my metal castings. I made up a bunch of Savage Republic palm-tree-plus-Islam pins, about 2" tall, and some round F-SPACE I Ching style badges, and the usual assortment of brains and aliens and Burning Man symbols. They really liked them, especially the Savage Republic ones. I also gave about 25 or 30 Neubauten "Halber Mensch" pins to Lisette to give to Blixa (she works for neubauten.org sometiems) and/or give away with merchandise. Everyone liked the bits and pieces and it was worthwhile doing all that late-night casting and grinding.
By then it's after 11:00 and we have a ferry to catch, the next performer is awful anyway so we go out into the howling wind and pouring rain to the ferry dock. Get to sleep about 2:00 am after a talk and some toast (I hadn't eaten since lunch). Up the next morning, show Lissa's son Jackson how to make a torsion-powered catapult for a science project he's making, and catch the fetrry to Seattle. Make my pilgrimage to Archie McPhee, where I buy lots of funny things on sale, including a nice East German military woman's felt hat that looks very good on scuttle. Stuff all that into my pack, on top of the 30 Savage Republic/ F-SPACE CDs I am taking up to Canada so the gang doesn't have to pay extra for them. Teriyaki and rice in Ballard, back downtown, catch the bus to Vancouver, no incidents and the Canadian border guard was even nice to me.
I got to the hotel where Lianne was, dog-tired and hungry. I had a nap while she had a swim, then went to Richard's on Richards for a late show. Dropped off the CDs and got a nice tour T-shirt for Lianne. Blixa was on first at about 11:00, did much the same show but changed some of his jokes. After a lengthy technical interval Jarboe (late of the Swans) performs, she has an amazingly powerful voice but the backup, an acoustic guitar and a small electric piano, just wasn't a good way to show it off. She even did a song from "Children of God" and it sounded weak with the low-key backing. More technical problems, things keep cutting out, I guess the circuits in Richard's are old and worn.
After an even longer interval F-SPACE starts to set up and play, by now it's 1:30 or something. Aleph drums and drums to keep the audience occupied, the guy is like a machine. Scot Jenerik has "Thor", a sort of pole with miked-up springs on it that he carries around as well as his usual set of amplified springs, and Ethan has trouble getting his guitar working. They did a great job and climax it with another long performance of "Through The Night Slowly", must have been at least half an hour or more.
We got back to the hotel very tired but happy. Regular drive home. Good times!
Lianne and I were going down to see the "How to Destroy the Universe - Part 5" noise/weird music festival on Friday the 3rd in Seattle. Put on by Mobilization, F-SPACE's label, http://www.mobilization.com/, and the lineup features them along with Jarboe (late of the Swans) and Blixa Bargeld doing a rare solo vocal performance.
We were going to go via the Port Angeles ferry and the Bainbridge Island ferry to get there. However, I had forgotten that the PA ferry has an annual two-week refit period, which ended on February 5. So, I went to Seattle on my own on Saturday on the bus to see them. I was supposed to meet Lissa in downtown Seattle at 4:30 after she got off work at the hospital, so we would have time to talk and eat dinner before the show.
Famous last words - this was the single worst trip I've ever had to the USA by bus. I took the PCL bus to Vancouver to catch the connecting bus to Seattle. There was constructionon the other side of the Massey Tunnel so I missed the bus that would have gotten me into Seattle at 3:30 by 20 minutes. The next bus would get me there at 7:30, not so bad since I wouldn't miss the show anyway. I waited around for an hour or two, got on the 3:15 bus, and as soon as we left Vancouver proper things slowed to a crawl. Some kind of early rush hour traffic and huge construction meant the bus slowed...to...a...walk.
We made it to the border about 6:00. Then we waited for 20 minutes while the bus ahead of us was cleared by the US customs guards. By 6:30 I am in a lineup with everyone else while a drug dog is sniffing at my (and everyone else's, I don't do that stuff) crotch. I draw this little Filipino g=border guard guy, he looks like a determined hamster with tattoos. He hassles me over the nature of my bus ticket, and demands that I prove that I'm not going to stay in the USA forever. I prove to him I have a good job and a house in Victoria, he wanders over to Immigration, can't catch the eye of whoever he wanted to send to harass me next and then says, "OK you can go." Then they X-ray my bag (luckily I didn't have to 'splain all those little metal castings) and I go wait on the bus some more. Or rather, wait until we are told we can wait on the bus some more. There is no telephone and while there may be washrooms in the building, they are for the people who work there, not pass through there.
We get to Bellingham about 7:15. Drain the lizard at the train/bus station (Oh yeah, Vancouver and Seattle are both major cities of about 1.5 million each, both major ports and business centres, but there is ONE TRAIN a day between the two cities, and even then it's usually a bus. Riddle me that.). Try to call Lissa again to tell her I'll be late, no dice. Finally we pull into the Seattle bus station after 9:15!
Thankfully it was just a few blocks to the venue, I get in and get my ticket at the Will Call, they show me where I'm supposed to sit and there's Lissa! She did the smart thing and wandered around until showtime, then went and asked for her ticket (under my name) at the Will Call.
So, I got to hear the last 4 minutes of F-SPACE's set, a marvellously noisy version of "Through The Night Slowly". Then after a short break, Blixa Bargeld did his solo performance "Rede/Speech", really good, such a clever and intelligent person he seems. He was working with some electronic delay machines that stored up to 30 seconds of his voice, then he would actuate them, do effects or cut them off with foot pedals. When he did his screaming and put it on reverb, you could almost feel your brain moving around in your cranium from the vibrations! The venue (the Triple Door) had great acoustics and was technically flawless, by the way.
Later I go back to the merch table and find Ethan, Scott and Aleph of F-SPACE, congratulate them, and give them my metal castings. I made up a bunch of Savage Republic palm-tree-plus-Islam pins, about 2" tall, and some round F-SPACE I Ching style badges, and the usual assortment of brains and aliens and Burning Man symbols. They really liked them, especially the Savage Republic ones. I also gave about 25 or 30 Neubauten "Halber Mensch" pins to Lisette to give to Blixa (she works for neubauten.org sometiems) and/or give away with merchandise. Everyone liked the bits and pieces and it was worthwhile doing all that late-night casting and grinding.
By then it's after 11:00 and we have a ferry to catch, the next performer is awful anyway so we go out into the howling wind and pouring rain to the ferry dock. Get to sleep about 2:00 am after a talk and some toast (I hadn't eaten since lunch). Up the next morning, show Lissa's son Jackson how to make a torsion-powered catapult for a science project he's making, and catch the fetrry to Seattle. Make my pilgrimage to Archie McPhee, where I buy lots of funny things on sale, including a nice East German military woman's felt hat that looks very good on scuttle. Stuff all that into my pack, on top of the 30 Savage Republic/ F-SPACE CDs I am taking up to Canada so the gang doesn't have to pay extra for them. Teriyaki and rice in Ballard, back downtown, catch the bus to Vancouver, no incidents and the Canadian border guard was even nice to me.
I got to the hotel where Lianne was, dog-tired and hungry. I had a nap while she had a swim, then went to Richard's on Richards for a late show. Dropped off the CDs and got a nice tour T-shirt for Lianne. Blixa was on first at about 11:00, did much the same show but changed some of his jokes. After a lengthy technical interval Jarboe (late of the Swans) performs, she has an amazingly powerful voice but the backup, an acoustic guitar and a small electric piano, just wasn't a good way to show it off. She even did a song from "Children of God" and it sounded weak with the low-key backing. More technical problems, things keep cutting out, I guess the circuits in Richard's are old and worn.
After an even longer interval F-SPACE starts to set up and play, by now it's 1:30 or something. Aleph drums and drums to keep the audience occupied, the guy is like a machine. Scot Jenerik has "Thor", a sort of pole with miked-up springs on it that he carries around as well as his usual set of amplified springs, and Ethan has trouble getting his guitar working. They did a great job and climax it with another long performance of "Through The Night Slowly", must have been at least half an hour or more.
We got back to the hotel very tired but happy. Regular drive home. Good times!