The announcement:
Monday, July 30 at the Millvale Industrial Theater--yet another Toxic Spores noisemaking set. The current plan is to perform two improvisations, the first of which will be "The Good Life" (for Bruce Naumann), and featuring some new sounds, one of which was recently invented by a researcher at Leeds, UK. (I am not making this up.) And there will be many frequencies your ears don't often get a chance to process.

Or you may opt to bask in the whammy-pedal excursions of Unfinished Symphonies, organ soundtracks to those moments you've forgotten, but which later give you deja vu. Robert Press will be wearing his Composer's Hat, so you can be sure that these pieces are Authentically Composed for your listening pleasure.

If that's not enough to bring you out, you may wish to attend merely to observe the sociological phenomenon that is promoter Brendan Zepp, who will be there, most likely with an enthusiastic entourage and dedicated fan base in tow. It must be seen to be believed, I tell you.

Here's the lineup:

7:30 Conelrad
8:15 Ryan Sigesmund
9:00 Unfinished Symphonies
9:45 Brendan Zepp
10:30 Toxic Spores <------ Your correspondent.
11:15 Terminus Est

Tickets are $5; memories are guaranteed to persist for at least 24 hours, if not a lifetime. (YMMV.)

The Report:
The evening began with Conelrad, a guitar/drums death metal duo. It was actually rather fun--pummelling prog beats, cookie-monster vocals, the whole bit. Couldn't understand a word of it, though.

Ryan turned out to be the major surprise of the evening. He set up quite an elaborate drum kit, and did a set of solo drum improvisation. Not a "drum solo," mind you, but a drummer listening to the sounds he was making, responding, making decisions about what to do next, exploring. Very promising. I was impressed that he'd even do a solo set, and more impressed when it was obvious that he was taking some risks and experimenting. Another fine moment was his performance of some jungle--on his acoustic kit. And he's a nice guy to boot.

Robert's set was another good one, with the tunes we've grown to know and love--and he got some audience response this time. The composer's hat is reminiscent of some of the hats Monk used to wear, and the songs took on an extra glow of sorts. Brendan's set benefitted greatly from his move to an all-karaoke format. While his posse was smaller this time, they were enthusiastic. Brendan hung on the mic stand, smoking evocatively, cloaking his songs of doomy angst in an air of euro-scented world-weariness. Rock (or at least goth) stardom awaits.

My own set: I chased a few people from the room with the first improv, which is largely based on 60-cycle hum from one of Bruce Naumann's neon sculptures, so it was kind of subtle and weird-sounding. I stretched this one too long, perhaps, and it might be better at ten minutes or less, as opposed to twenty. I wasn't too happy with it as I was doing it, as it didn't seem to hang together, but listening to the playback was another story. It seems to have some life, if I can just figure out how to balance the thing. (The MiniDisc isn't sounding half bad when I don't overload it.) The other piece--based on tone beating--was fun, and I'll probably do it again in longer form.

Terminus Est...had brought along much of their family. (It was, apparently, their first gig. They'd even had T-shirts printed up.) The sound check took quite a long time, and then they announced that they were "going to do something a little 'different'..." and proceeded to play a mix of post-Metallica metal, some rock, and, oddly, a little bit of jangle-pop here and there--pretty much all over the "rock" map. (Including an incongruous cover of the Cars' "Just What I Needed.") Nonetheless, the mom of one of the members was there, rocking out, holding up a lighter, the whole bit. Admittedly, I wasn't the intended audience, and their constituents seemed to go home happy.

Overall, an interesting evening, and some good connections were made. Gotta keep working that Naumann piece, though.