FRIDAY, OCT 24th, 1997 - SUDSY MALONE'S
"Hey, Hey, young man
This isn't an art-direction
but an anti-art mouvement!"
Sudsy's was rockin' once again last Friday evening with a non-stop aural assault on internal organs everywhere...and the room was full of 'em. Kudos to Sudsys for booking a bill which challenged every tired, pop convention ever mucked up for the huddled, mindless masses.
Cincy locals, Aperiodic, opened up the set with 30-plus minutes of feedback, noise, and sonic mayhem. No songs, melodies, or riffs to be found anywhere - just ANTI songs, melodies and riffs. The trio, consisting of stand-up bass (played mostly with sticks and some ridged wires), honking guitar (de-tuned, of course), and drums (Moon-esque), took aim at pop music and ripped it a new one! If there were any hooks, (and I doubt that there were) they were courtesy of the fine drum beats which stopped and started with no set patterns - just pure improv. Occasionally one's mind filled in the songs, you know, the kind of psychoacoustics which set in when the brain reacts to traumatic experience. My mind superimposed some sweet Tiny Tim melodies as Tiny might have done them, given the same instrumentation and high-wattage amplification. Your mind would probably have superimposed some of the John Cale inspired Velvet Underground experiments like the middle section of "European Son" or perhaps some Stooges experiments off of Funhouse. Although fun once, I can see this getting tired a second or third time around. Even so, Aperiodic is quite simply a new brand of a-musical S&M.
Next to rape the stage was another new Cincy act, Elk, and I have to say that they sounded great considering that the dissonance generated by the first act was enough to make almost ANY full-on, hard rocking, follow-up sound like the Nixons. In spite of that, Elk successfully carved its own niche. They are a four-piece (two guitar/bass/drums) ensemble which provides plenty of well-timed pauses and bursts, guitar squawks and melodies (all shouted Frank Black style) to make one thankful that the Pixies did exist and had children (even if the children are unaware of their parents). Elk's drummer added some occasional hush-jazz patterns to balance the more visceral, tribal bursts characteristic of this band. Their solid, short set was a nice segue way for the headliners, Skeleton Key.
Skeleton Key is an experimental, sorta extreme, pop band with songs firmly intact. Instead of totally deconstructing pop conventions, Skeleton Key embraces them and adds such oddball trimmings such as a percussionist who plays mostly car parts, and extraneous noises provided by early-80's childrens' toys that can be picked up at most thrift-stores (you provide the size 'D' batteries). The blend is so effective you forget that you are listening to basic pop songs of the verse/chorus/verse variety. 80's punk-pop meets 90's tribal beats. Lot's happening there, especially in the rhythm section to keep your pacemaker ticking.
This listener was satisfied to get such a platter of ANTI-POP at a fairly low price. Although I was least excited by the headlining act, each band was on, really on, with what they attempted to do and the audience was the chief beneficiary.