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There's something surreal and magical about driving through the wilderness at night. Long ribbon of highway spooling out ahead of you, a black sky strewn with stars, no lights outside of your own headlights. All that black emptiness surrounding you, with harsh electronics as your soundtrack. I love driving at night.
Take a large open warehouse space, scatter a few chairs and tables about. Throw some long tables in the corcer for the vendors, run a bar halfay through the room, with a clock who's hands sin in all the wrong directions. Large plate glass windows let you see the street outside. Take the other half of the space, and drape the white walls with floor to ceiling video screens. Tall crumbling pillars support the roof, where piles and wires criss cross abve you. Add a stage, large black curtains, and a huge pile of amplifiers and you have the SAT, where I spent almost all of my weekend.
Friday: EBM. I felt like I was on a movie set. Tons of glamours looking people, all tall and angular and outrageously dressed. Lights and images flashing on the screens, the music throbbing in your blood and bones. All the bands were well received, Terminal Sekt was plagued with computer problems about halfway through their set. It was all a bit overwhelming the first night.
Bedtime: 3:30
Favorite bands: Decoded Feedback, Hocico, Memmaker
Saturday: Power noise/break core: We steered out of familiar territory tonight, and I had images of thudding grinding monotonus beats for about five hours. Thankfully, I was wrong. The music was harsher and faster, but still filled with interesting hooks and beats. The musicians helped sell the act. All of them were dwarfed by the video screens around them, thin figures hunched over decks and laptops, spinning and twisiting knobs, but still conveying their passion. Remy (from Mlada Fronta) was not dwarfed, he is a big man, and when he moves to the beat his whole body explodes with motion and energy. Sadly, he also ran afoul of technical difficulties. What he did get out was awesome. I found myself dancing more and more, and talking to many more people that night as well.
Bedtime: 4:30
Favorite bands: Liar's Rosebush + Scrapedx, ah cama-sotz, enduser
Sunday: Power electronics/dark ambient. Forget the Cure, forget any and all whiney emo bands. Nothing emobdies depression better than power electronics. It is all consuming, soul destroying, end of the world music at it's best. Imagine a sound that gets inside you and slowly, loudly, crumbled everything in you to dust and consumes it. It's white noise and tearing metal and locomotive engines and jet turbines. Despite all that, it's oddly soothing and meditative, for short spans. This was the sound I was dreading hearing at the festival, but after the first hour, all my fear was consumed, along with almost all my other thoughs. The music grew much more mellow as the day progressed (think old Delerium with more clicks and grinds) Then the volume and energy got turned way up with Ordinateur, and all those who were sitting down during the earlier sets jumped up and danced. Mlada Fronta returned for an ambient set, and they they made room for his regular set again. This time there were no musical failures, and he tore the room up. He was the most awesome person to watch on stage. The musical fun continued with a more grooving techno act, more dark ambient with beats, and a masterful mix of noise and ambient with a husband-wife team (Orphx). Arcanus tells me they have a baby, I can just imagine them playing lullabies for their child by turning on white noise on the TV.
Bedtime: 9:00 the next day
Favorite bands: Mlada Fronta, Ordinatuer, Orphx, S:cage
All things must end, and we staggered out of the SAT at 2:30. Fortified by poutine and red bull, we repeated the long dark journey through Quebec and Vermont. The skies grew light as we passed through New Hampshire, and we were snared by rush house as morning foud us. There are a few things I would do differently next year, but I can safely say that all the stress and effort to get things ready for this trip paid off in spades. New friends, new experiences, and a new apprication for music. Oh, Canda.
Take a large open warehouse space, scatter a few chairs and tables about. Throw some long tables in the corcer for the vendors, run a bar halfay through the room, with a clock who's hands sin in all the wrong directions. Large plate glass windows let you see the street outside. Take the other half of the space, and drape the white walls with floor to ceiling video screens. Tall crumbling pillars support the roof, where piles and wires criss cross abve you. Add a stage, large black curtains, and a huge pile of amplifiers and you have the SAT, where I spent almost all of my weekend.
Friday: EBM. I felt like I was on a movie set. Tons of glamours looking people, all tall and angular and outrageously dressed. Lights and images flashing on the screens, the music throbbing in your blood and bones. All the bands were well received, Terminal Sekt was plagued with computer problems about halfway through their set. It was all a bit overwhelming the first night.
Bedtime: 3:30
Favorite bands: Decoded Feedback, Hocico, Memmaker
Saturday: Power noise/break core: We steered out of familiar territory tonight, and I had images of thudding grinding monotonus beats for about five hours. Thankfully, I was wrong. The music was harsher and faster, but still filled with interesting hooks and beats. The musicians helped sell the act. All of them were dwarfed by the video screens around them, thin figures hunched over decks and laptops, spinning and twisiting knobs, but still conveying their passion. Remy (from Mlada Fronta) was not dwarfed, he is a big man, and when he moves to the beat his whole body explodes with motion and energy. Sadly, he also ran afoul of technical difficulties. What he did get out was awesome. I found myself dancing more and more, and talking to many more people that night as well.
Bedtime: 4:30
Favorite bands: Liar's Rosebush + Scrapedx, ah cama-sotz, enduser
Sunday: Power electronics/dark ambient. Forget the Cure, forget any and all whiney emo bands. Nothing emobdies depression better than power electronics. It is all consuming, soul destroying, end of the world music at it's best. Imagine a sound that gets inside you and slowly, loudly, crumbled everything in you to dust and consumes it. It's white noise and tearing metal and locomotive engines and jet turbines. Despite all that, it's oddly soothing and meditative, for short spans. This was the sound I was dreading hearing at the festival, but after the first hour, all my fear was consumed, along with almost all my other thoughs. The music grew much more mellow as the day progressed (think old Delerium with more clicks and grinds) Then the volume and energy got turned way up with Ordinateur, and all those who were sitting down during the earlier sets jumped up and danced. Mlada Fronta returned for an ambient set, and they they made room for his regular set again. This time there were no musical failures, and he tore the room up. He was the most awesome person to watch on stage. The musical fun continued with a more grooving techno act, more dark ambient with beats, and a masterful mix of noise and ambient with a husband-wife team (Orphx). Arcanus tells me they have a baby, I can just imagine them playing lullabies for their child by turning on white noise on the TV.
Bedtime: 9:00 the next day
Favorite bands: Mlada Fronta, Ordinatuer, Orphx, S:cage
All things must end, and we staggered out of the SAT at 2:30. Fortified by poutine and red bull, we repeated the long dark journey through Quebec and Vermont. The skies grew light as we passed through New Hampshire, and we were snared by rush house as morning foud us. There are a few things I would do differently next year, but I can safely say that all the stress and effort to get things ready for this trip paid off in spades. New friends, new experiences, and a new apprication for music. Oh, Canda.
