Kinetik: Phase 5.EBM Futurepop.16 Mai.May 16 2010
After a hearty a dinner of cheese ravioli (better than that powdery shit they serve at The Olive Garden) washed down by a fizzy 7Up at a nice, open-air Italian eatery called Villa Rouge, we hiked over to Usine C for the festival's final night.
We caught the last few songs by Detroit Diesel, who managed to deviate from convention enough for me to like what they had to offer quite a bit. I don't think they have an official release yet (and nobody has uploaded any festival video, if any). Fractured followed. Eh. Lizard had decided to strategize the evening accordingly, sitting for all the early bands that didn't interest him, since the later-evening draw would have him standing for several hours. At this point in our stay, the pain in our feet and necks had taken up permanent residency (despite our protestations), and even to sit on that hard concrete floor provoked extreme discomfort. The porno-named Glenn Love went on third, giving a surprisingly strong performance; catchy tunes of an almost pop sensibility juxtaposed against rough, sinister vocals.
Glenn Love Live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzbH3tsdcQI
Another holdover from last year's Power Strip Festival, Philly's Cesium-137 were next, and while I don't find anything about their music particularly stunning, I do admire the decision to keep their vocals undistorted. Run Level Zero followed, and their set was nothing to write home about (I kept wondering why they were allowed to come out for an encore when the night's festivities were already running behind schedule). Now Faderhead was an interesting performer: a tall, tan, sunglasses-wearing fellow with a mohawk, swigging Smirnoff (and occasionally filling audience members' cups) and singing in a small, sensitive voice that almost seemed intimidated by the crowd. In a strange way, he reminded me of Paul Oakenfold. The guys from SAM ran the "soundtrack." Faderhead's set overall was more chill and less explosive than some of the other acts, but accumulated its own infectious groove.
Faderhead Kinetik Promo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs33zCHFZTo
Denmark's Lights of Euphoria put on an energetic, sincere set with a few standout songs (Lizard was far more enthusiastic). You know that band Covenant? Someone should inform Frozen Plasma of their existence, and that one Covenant is all the world really needs. I actually thought FP was the final band before the night's headliners, and when I discovered my miscalculation, I stood for Rotersand and was miserable the entire time. Yeah, I was kind of tired at that point. And yeah, I just kind of wanted the night to be over so I could listen to my feet scream all the way back to the hotel and fall asleep in Montreal one last time. Under any other circumstances, I probably would have appreciated Rotersand's set a lot more: yet another band hailing from Denmark, their bounding stage presence and thumping sound was enough to stir the crowd into a frenzy. Unlike their contemporaries, the real surprise of their set were the earnest, very EBM vocals of the lead singer (easily towering over six feet), which invoked Tom Shear more than Claus Larsen. Maybe I'll give Rotersand another shot in the distant future. After my initial oversight, I settled in for Covenant, the headliner that had initially gotten me so excited about this year's festival (inexplicably becoming less so the closer it got). To those who saw Grindhouse in theatres, I offer up the following analogy: remember how fast and rousing Planet Terror felt, compared to the slow and generally uneventful Death Proof, to the point where you were shifting in your seat, wondering when something was going to finally happen? Well, let's call Rotersand Planet Terror and Covenant Death Proof. While I was certainly interested in seeing Covenant, the strategy of their set seemed counterproductive to the point at which they were performing: for a good long while, the room was dark, punctuated by only pale blue lighting, and the lead singer would frequently step out toward the audience, only to retreat into background darkness; this lack of association with the performer ultimately hindered the entire set. Similarly, after the bouncier, faster pace of Rotersand, Covenant's music (which works well on disc, and probably better live outside of a festival setting) was less conducive to a visceral audience response. While I appreciate the earnestness of the vocals and lyrics (the singer looks and sounds like the love child of David Bowie and Peter Murphy), the band ultimately didn't have an adequate hook to break through what the audience had already seen. (Lizard informed me that last night's performance in Philly was far better. Go figure.)
Addendum: For the last song of their set, legendary drummer JOE LETZ appeared onstage to participate in some percussive destruction that subsequently screwed up the singer's rhythm; I think most of the audience recognized what was happening, and while there is video of this incident, I am opting for a more shining moment.
Covenant Live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh7m6o0lFoc
Memo to Melotron: stop saying it's your last song when it's not really your last song, and go back to the Depeche Mode Detritus Plant from whence you stole your sound. Frustrating. Erica Dunham (the brainchild behind Unter Null) was scheduled to perform at Kinetik '09, but fell victim to tragedy when her recording studio burned down prior to the festival. Needless to say, she didn't make an appearance. In the year that followed, however, she released a new album and unceremoniously pulled up the rear of Kinetik '10. Now, I had only heard one Unter Null song prior to their set, and was building a second-hand enthusiasm for them through Lizard's continuous faith that the band would not, could not suck. As was typical of each night's final act, the crowd had thinned out substantially, and the tech guys seemed fatigued not only from the strain of the evening, but of the prior four days; their actions were of a fast, dazed disposition. Almost as soon as Dunham and Co. took the stage, the house lights rose and faded like warnings, but the band played on, despite the shaft they were clearly getting. I believe they managed to squeeze four songs out of their limited time, and played with such a visceral fury that I couldn't help but get wrapped up in the madness. Caustic and The Gothsicles made cameos at the very end, assisting in fucking shit up onstage. When the house lights came on for the last time, Slayer's 'Reign in Blood' pumped through the speakers, and Lizard began a pit with the few festival-goers that remained. The following morning, we encountered Dunham and her band outside the Hyatt, complimenting the performance. She informed us that Unter Null will be touring this summer; it would be nice to see them perform a complete set.
Unter Null Live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0T1fvS6DIo
One final aside: while in Old Montreal, I got a caricature done (something I wanted to do last year, but never got around to), and it turned out horribly. People kept slowing down or stopping to look; a few seemed visibly amused. Apparently the artist had not read Daniel Clowes' Caricature, where the first rule of the form is, simply, flatter the customer.
Am I finally done?
I think so.
See you in a month.
We caught the last few songs by Detroit Diesel, who managed to deviate from convention enough for me to like what they had to offer quite a bit. I don't think they have an official release yet (and nobody has uploaded any festival video, if any). Fractured followed. Eh. Lizard had decided to strategize the evening accordingly, sitting for all the early bands that didn't interest him, since the later-evening draw would have him standing for several hours. At this point in our stay, the pain in our feet and necks had taken up permanent residency (despite our protestations), and even to sit on that hard concrete floor provoked extreme discomfort. The porno-named Glenn Love went on third, giving a surprisingly strong performance; catchy tunes of an almost pop sensibility juxtaposed against rough, sinister vocals.
Glenn Love Live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzbH3tsdcQI
Another holdover from last year's Power Strip Festival, Philly's Cesium-137 were next, and while I don't find anything about their music particularly stunning, I do admire the decision to keep their vocals undistorted. Run Level Zero followed, and their set was nothing to write home about (I kept wondering why they were allowed to come out for an encore when the night's festivities were already running behind schedule). Now Faderhead was an interesting performer: a tall, tan, sunglasses-wearing fellow with a mohawk, swigging Smirnoff (and occasionally filling audience members' cups) and singing in a small, sensitive voice that almost seemed intimidated by the crowd. In a strange way, he reminded me of Paul Oakenfold. The guys from SAM ran the "soundtrack." Faderhead's set overall was more chill and less explosive than some of the other acts, but accumulated its own infectious groove.
Faderhead Kinetik Promo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs33zCHFZTo
Denmark's Lights of Euphoria put on an energetic, sincere set with a few standout songs (Lizard was far more enthusiastic). You know that band Covenant? Someone should inform Frozen Plasma of their existence, and that one Covenant is all the world really needs. I actually thought FP was the final band before the night's headliners, and when I discovered my miscalculation, I stood for Rotersand and was miserable the entire time. Yeah, I was kind of tired at that point. And yeah, I just kind of wanted the night to be over so I could listen to my feet scream all the way back to the hotel and fall asleep in Montreal one last time. Under any other circumstances, I probably would have appreciated Rotersand's set a lot more: yet another band hailing from Denmark, their bounding stage presence and thumping sound was enough to stir the crowd into a frenzy. Unlike their contemporaries, the real surprise of their set were the earnest, very EBM vocals of the lead singer (easily towering over six feet), which invoked Tom Shear more than Claus Larsen. Maybe I'll give Rotersand another shot in the distant future. After my initial oversight, I settled in for Covenant, the headliner that had initially gotten me so excited about this year's festival (inexplicably becoming less so the closer it got). To those who saw Grindhouse in theatres, I offer up the following analogy: remember how fast and rousing Planet Terror felt, compared to the slow and generally uneventful Death Proof, to the point where you were shifting in your seat, wondering when something was going to finally happen? Well, let's call Rotersand Planet Terror and Covenant Death Proof. While I was certainly interested in seeing Covenant, the strategy of their set seemed counterproductive to the point at which they were performing: for a good long while, the room was dark, punctuated by only pale blue lighting, and the lead singer would frequently step out toward the audience, only to retreat into background darkness; this lack of association with the performer ultimately hindered the entire set. Similarly, after the bouncier, faster pace of Rotersand, Covenant's music (which works well on disc, and probably better live outside of a festival setting) was less conducive to a visceral audience response. While I appreciate the earnestness of the vocals and lyrics (the singer looks and sounds like the love child of David Bowie and Peter Murphy), the band ultimately didn't have an adequate hook to break through what the audience had already seen. (Lizard informed me that last night's performance in Philly was far better. Go figure.)
Addendum: For the last song of their set, legendary drummer JOE LETZ appeared onstage to participate in some percussive destruction that subsequently screwed up the singer's rhythm; I think most of the audience recognized what was happening, and while there is video of this incident, I am opting for a more shining moment.
Covenant Live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh7m6o0lFoc
Memo to Melotron: stop saying it's your last song when it's not really your last song, and go back to the Depeche Mode Detritus Plant from whence you stole your sound. Frustrating. Erica Dunham (the brainchild behind Unter Null) was scheduled to perform at Kinetik '09, but fell victim to tragedy when her recording studio burned down prior to the festival. Needless to say, she didn't make an appearance. In the year that followed, however, she released a new album and unceremoniously pulled up the rear of Kinetik '10. Now, I had only heard one Unter Null song prior to their set, and was building a second-hand enthusiasm for them through Lizard's continuous faith that the band would not, could not suck. As was typical of each night's final act, the crowd had thinned out substantially, and the tech guys seemed fatigued not only from the strain of the evening, but of the prior four days; their actions were of a fast, dazed disposition. Almost as soon as Dunham and Co. took the stage, the house lights rose and faded like warnings, but the band played on, despite the shaft they were clearly getting. I believe they managed to squeeze four songs out of their limited time, and played with such a visceral fury that I couldn't help but get wrapped up in the madness. Caustic and The Gothsicles made cameos at the very end, assisting in fucking shit up onstage. When the house lights came on for the last time, Slayer's 'Reign in Blood' pumped through the speakers, and Lizard began a pit with the few festival-goers that remained. The following morning, we encountered Dunham and her band outside the Hyatt, complimenting the performance. She informed us that Unter Null will be touring this summer; it would be nice to see them perform a complete set.
Unter Null Live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0T1fvS6DIo
One final aside: while in Old Montreal, I got a caricature done (something I wanted to do last year, but never got around to), and it turned out horribly. People kept slowing down or stopping to look; a few seemed visibly amused. Apparently the artist had not read Daniel Clowes' Caricature, where the first rule of the form is, simply, flatter the customer.
Am I finally done?
I think so.
See you in a month.