Live Music Review //
FiFac x Dino Crisis / Interzone Agent /
Human Flourishing / Diatomaceous Girth
March 24th, 2023
Never Ending Books
New Haven CT
Additional photos can be found in a Facebook album here :::
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1214750499255169&type=3
As far as shows go, this one had quite the lineup. I would definitely go out of my way to see any of these artists outside of this show, but having them all share the same stage made this feel that much more special. I knew going into this, based upon that, we were about to experience something different and something truly special but I didn't know how much that would ring true until the show was over.
This show started with Diatomaceous Girth which I cannot spell without looking up. This duo had electronics, a violin and at one point there were even these dance like beats coming through the speakers. While it could be best described somewhere between noise and free improv, one thing which stood out from most other music I hear in those genres is that this was fun. It just felt so upbeat, like a clown at a children's birthday party.
At one point during their set, the duo began to put on gloves and bring forth a large pot. From this pot, they brought out cobs of corn which they then gave to audience members, all of which ate them. This was magical because everyone both accepted the corn and ate it. Quentin was not offered corn, but because of his braces I don't think he would've been able to eat it, so that also just happened to work out.
There was a projector going through most of these sets and having those images with the music made this all the much more of a performance. Human Flourishing was up second and before their set officially started they told a joke about lobsters. The music itself went back and forth between electronics, dancing, banging on a drum and at one point just trying to get a balloon to pop.
I must admit now, as this feels like the most appropriate time to do so, that whenever I'd listen to cassettes and review them I'd always have these ideas in my head of how the sounds were being made. I knew, to an extent, that those ideas were wrong but one reason which made me not want to attend live shows was to not sort of have that mystery solved. I didn't want to take away that illusion.
One conclusion that I've come to from going to shows though is that it's very possible to hear something on cassette and not know how it's made in reality, but the live performance doesn't always give that away either. I see that with a lot of the electronics and it happened with Human Flourishing as well, where much of that mystery remained. The duo was also on the stage so the projector had images placed over them which made for neat visuals to go with the audio.
The third artist to perform was Interzone Agent and I never really feel like I prepare myself to see someone perform live I just kind of have ideas in my head of how it might sound. To say that Interzone Agent performs harsh noise would be the most general way to categorize their music, but it just feels like it's something more, as music tends to do.
During this set, the one person behind Interzone Agent began to take out disposable gloves and put them on. I thought this might be a chance for us to enjoy more corn or other food perhaps, but then I noticed them taking a seat. Then, the next thing I saw was something in their hand being put to their leg. This instrument went back and forth to the table the way that a paint brush would to a canvas and palette.
It took me a moment to realize what was going on. Once I did realize it, I took a few more moments for confirmation because I felt like what I was seeing couldn't be accurate. Interzone Agent was tattooing themselves during the set of music. I have never seen or heard of anything like that happening before but I am definitely impressed by it. At one point, another music listener seated near me had to stand up and move closer to truly confirm what we were all seeing.
This took us into the final set of the night with FiFac and Dino Crisis. There were a lot of electronics, sure, but there was also a trumpet, percussion and vocals. At one point during this set it felt like a party and everyone began hitting balloons around in the air. It made for quite the visual with everything else going on and it was, as was the first set, just a lot of fun.
Not that long ago, we saw Jeff Dragan and Mackenzie Kourie perform together but with two other musicians. One thing that I will constantly say- one point I always seem to want to drive home- is that when listening to this free improv type of sound, it's so great because you can hear people do sets solo, as duos or in groups. Or so it's those different combinations that really make things special in a sense as well. You know the musicians are good already, so having them work together and create something such as this truly is a moment in time we should never forget.
I also hope I'm not depriving anybody of seeing Interzone Agent for the first time and having that surprise. I'm hoping it's less of knowing what's going to happen going into it and more of "Oh yeah, I remember reading about this" once it does start. Still, the music speaks volumes and that should always be the reason you do anything.
More information about music at Never Ending Books can be found here :::
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100066628643789
FiFac can be found on Bandcamp here :::
Dino Crisis can be found on Bandcamp here :::
https://dinocrisis.bandcamp.com/
Interzone Agent can be found on Bandcamp here :::
https://interzoneagent.bandcamp.com/track/zepar-16-72
Human Flourishing can be found on Bandcamp here :::
https://humanflourishing.bandcamp.com/album/patterns-of-welcomes-and-partings-2
Diatomaceous Girth can be found on Instagram at :::
https://www.instagram.com/butt.mommy/ and https://www.instagram.com/sad_retina/
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