Show report: Final Koufar show, Enemy Artspace, Chicago, IL
Pre-show:
Mack (Koufar), Jay (Blessed Sacrifist) and I got to the spot around 8:30, to find it in the middle of a brownout, so there wasn't much in terms of light or ventilation happening. We killed time waiting for the power to come on by passing around a 2L bottle of Lebanese moonshine that Mack's friend had sent him for special occasions. Anise-flavor, reminded me a lot of Ouzo. Too much apparently causes internal bleeding.
The Enemy space is really huge, with a massive (say 40x30) performance area opening out into the kitchen and sitting room. There were people there pretty early, both performers and crowd members. There seemed to be, throughout the night, a group of about 50 people there to watch the show, which is great. There were some random hipsters who came up to drink, but they bolted almost as soon as the first act started.
Hate Basement:
Duo of Nick Dellacroce from Bongripper (on electronics and vocals) and Will McElvy from pop-punk act Castevet on moog and electronics. Utterly nasty thick harsh noise. It was my first time checking them out, and I was not at all let down. Unexpected inclusion of vocals from Nick, had some serious Deathpile vibes to parts of it. distributed collage xeroxes stained with piss.
Shattered Hymen
Last time I saw Vadim play, he had a lot of technical difficulties stemming from his setup, which was all digital synth modules. This time was different. Shattered Hymen played pretty much in the dark, used a table full of digital rack units and a Nord synth as well as a sturdy contact mic and a piece of metal sheeting. Really bassy harsh noise sound to it, much better than his set where his gear gave him trouble. Set up a nice harsh synth wall and then brought in more and more scrap, taking the synth out until there was only scrapwork left.
Jason Soliday
Jason Soliday is one of the three roommates that calls Enemy Arts home, and is perhaps one of the most adept electronics performers I have seen live. He played a massive 30-minute set of buzzing nasty synth cutup and blasts of harsh noise, using a variety of consoles. I'm not exactly sure what they were, there were a few oscillators and two synth boxes with an assload of alligator clips all over them. Huge stereo panning effects and fast cutups.
Blessed Sacrifist
Jay played next, using his rig of mixers, digital delays and synth loops. Blessed Sacrifist is a dark industrial / power electronics project that uses a lot of melodic string, synth and piano loops along with walls of harsh noise. Symphonic P.E. if that makes sense. Reminds me of a more formless Nothing or a more ornate Cocaine Death-era Prurient. His set was creepy, strong deep vocals fighting through the washed-out depressive synth loops and crackling harsh noise. Really great. Jay's other projects are worth noting too; he plays with Peter J. Woods in straightedge P.E. project xALLxFORxTHISx and is the bass player in a sludge metal band (Slob Donovan) and atmospheric black metal act Owlscry, both of whom are excellent. Owlscry shares members with Shroud Of Despondency.
Nyodene D
I was playing my last (planned) Nyodene D set until my upcoming December tour and was ready to play a longer one and make it worth it. Despite some technical difficulties (table leg giving out while moving it, starting over about 20 seconds in because a digi reverb wasn't set on the right setting, PA speakers overheating one at a time during my second song), I think i managed a pretty good set. I got a lot of compliments. Played two pieces from upcoming CD on Black Plague, tenatively titled "Maruta" and "Last Disciple Of Christ". Simple setup: vocals, iPod with samples, Casio SK-1 through pedals / reverb units. Really enjoyed my vocals and was glad that people didn't seem to notice (or pretended not to notice) that the moonshine kept me from playing my synth with some amount of accuracy a couple times.
Koufar
The star performance of the night was Koufar, his last before moving out to the Bay Area. Apparently, Disgust will be taking a backseat to both Crown Of Cerebus (Mack's new analog tape / drone / industrial project) and Koufar, for which he has written about a half-hour of new material. Mack's setup was different for this gig. Two Fostex MR-8s, a meatbox pedal, a Kaossilator pad and an oscillator box (repurposed from some science lab). Very synth-y loop sound to it, cold synths, manic glitched-up vocals, worming oscillator tones, etc. Awesome 25 minutes, played about four or five new songs, including a reworked version of "Patriot" off his split with Persistence In Mourning. New look too, no longer with the keffiyeh, but now in old-school Ben Sherman english skinhead regalia, covered in Maronite Militia tattoos, etc. Mack got a five minute ovation at the end for his set. Jason Soliday recorded it, but not through soundboard. I have soundboard recordings of everybody buy Hate Basement and probably Koufar (ran out of space and powered down in the middle of his set). Mack is in Dayton, OH for a few weeks before moving out west, so I imagine he'll maybe get to record this newest effort soon.
POST-SHOW
Awesome show, everybody's sets were different, but very high quality. Even though Mack is leaving, it seems like there's a really strong HN/PE scene left in it's place. Can't wait to go back.
