Mega Shoegaze Extravaganza

June 30, 2008 by Rick Taylor  Send to a Friend

Review: Ulrich Schnauss/Auburn Lull/Screen Vinyl Image/Luxa

It’s always a heartbreaker when technical snafus soil an otherwise top-notch performance. In the case of last Friday night’s mega-shoegaze extravaganza at the Velvet Lounge, it was all four artists that had to contend with that most unseemly of unseen enemies: the technical glitch.

I don’t see as many shows at the Velvet Lounge as I would like, so I’m hardly the right person to say whether or not what the bands encountered was typical—the past shows I have seen there all sounded great though, which only added to my surprise Friday night.

The sound problems pretty much reared their head from the get-go. I’m not sure what time Brookyln’s Luxa finally hit the stage, but it was much later than a lot of punters were expecting—at least if I were to judge based on the number of times I overheard someone ask, “Any idea when the first band is going on?” Word on the street (i.e. the bar downstairs) is that the band was having “technical difficulties.” Hmmm, haven’t heard that one before…

Once the band started playing though, everything sounded a-ok. Luxa’s lead singer Kristen Stock’s voice was just audible enough to make out an inviting melody line, while the band conjured up a thick haze of dreamy fog. The female vocals/ethereal guitar combo probably had some audience members thinking of early Lush or Cocteau Twins. Sure enough, the guitar was prime shoegaze/dream pop fare, but to the band’s credit, they never came across as rote. Some of the down-tempo grooves that emanated from their drum machine reminded me of Portishead or Massive Attack.

Aside from some issues with volume consistency, the biggest technical obstacle came when the band attempted three or four times to play one particular track. I’m not sure what happened exactly but it appeared as though they were trying to get their drum machine to play a certain beat and it wasn’t lasting more than a few seconds. Once they moved beyond that though, their short-set went over well and helped set a moody tone for the evening.

Of course, shoegaze lovers know there are two sides to the wall-of-sound coin: you have your gentle and pretty as a butterfly-sounding ethereal bands like Luxa—and then you have your amped up and gleefully loud-as-fuck guitar bands hellbent on boosting earplug sales such as Screen Vinyl Image.

BYT readers may remember Sexy Fitsum’s review of Screen Vinyl Image’s show at Selam about a month or two ago. He pointed out that they like to play a little loud. Indeed they do! And needless to say, the band made no overtures Friday night to change that reputation. After a couple false starts (not sure if it was the band or PA issues), the band proceeded to pulverize the crowd with its mutant beats, vintage-sounding synths and lucky for us—twin guitar assault! I have to say that hearing their new song “Slipping Away” was one of the highlights of the evening. This track perfectly encapsulates the band’s appeal—it boasts a head-bop inducing rhythm, synths that remind me of the “Escape from New York” soundtrack and vocals that sound like they’re coming out of some bat-infested tunnel. Oh yeah, and it’s catchy.

And yes, they were not just a little loud. They were *a lot* loud. And on one or two songs, it got pretty close to unbearable for me (of course, I had the great foresight to not bring earplugs—way to go!). In fairness, part of the up and down volume issues were related to the fact that roughly a fourth of the crowd that was there when Luxa was playing decided this wasn’t their particular kettle of tea and left.

Perhaps to underscore the irony of such a loud band playing with three, more tranquil-sounding artists, SVI ended with a punked-out, blink-and-you-missed-it take on Slowdive’s “Take Me Down.” Needless to say, it sounded more Slayer than Slowdive. ;)

And speaking of irony, check this out: The only band playing with an actual drum kit was the least “rock” and most gentle of the lot: Michigan’s Auburn Lull were so subdued compared with the other artists, their biggest sound obstacle wasn’t the intermittent PA problems as much as the annoying chatter from the audience.

On a purely performance level, Auburn Lull did not disappoint. They opened with my favorite song of theirs, “Stockard Drive,” and the band’s gentle ripples of crystalline guitar, barely-there yet unmistakable rhythms and almost hushed singing was borderline transcendent for me. Auburn Lull is obviously a band that is not going to appeal to everyone: their songs take time to unfold, never rush to an obvious hook, and are rich in subtlety and nuance. When people weren’t talking and the PA was working though, it was truly divine.

Maybe it was the late hour or maybe it was the quiet, lullaby sounds of Auburn Lull (and in all likelihood, it was probably a combination of both), but by the time Ulrich Schnauss took the stage, it was pretty obvious that a good chunk of attendees had already abandoned ship.

Now, if you haven’t seen Ulrich Schnauss live before, here’s the deal: it’s just him up there on stage, sitting in a chair most of the time, staring in front of a computer and twiddling with some knobs and keyboards. So, in a sense, watching him perform isn’t all that different from watching someone surfing the net at an internet café.

Ulrich himself has admitted in interviews that he is not happy with his current live set-up. With just him on stage, not only is the performance limited visually, but it’s also limited musically in giving fans a true live replication of his studio output: all those cool synth burbles, processed guitar bits, ethereal vocals and wicked beats come courtesy of Ulrich’s hard drive. And as an Ulrich fan, I can’t tell you how excited I would be if he had singer Judith Beck on stage with him to sing “Never Be the Same” or a real guitarist to play “Clear Day.”

This is not to suggest that Ulrich’s current live set-up is a lost cause. The joy of his live show, at least for me, is the combination of hearing his multi-layered and hauntingly beautiful music through a kick ass PA system while feasting visually on a variety of otherwordly images projected on a movie-theatre size screen. The Velvet Lounge however, is really not the ideal venue for this type of show in my view: with such a cramped space, the visuals end up being blocked by speakers, hanging wires, and other obstacles. And as for the PA…most of the time, it did kick ass; but when the worst technical problems of the night started happening halfway through Ulrich’s set, it was impossible not to be frustrated. (how bad did it get? audience members started complaining about the smell of sulphur…not a good sign.)

Props though: All four artists deserve special credit for keeping their cool despite the setbacks.

And I can definitely say this about the Velvet Lounge: the sound people were working their asses off to try and fix problems and figure out what the hell was going on.

The good news: In the furious battle between the bands and the technical glitches, the bands won.
The bad news: the glitches got in some serious punches and left a few bruises.

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