Dance Disaster Movement
with
Kill Me Tomorrow
Glass Candy
The Parish - August 5, 2005
214 6th Street (Upstairs)
Austin, TX
Unfortunately I only spoke with one of the musicians performing tonight, briefly, but I did record my first concert on MD thanks to RadioMike's generosity and technical assistance. In fact I'm recording it from purse to PC for MySpace right now! I had never heard of Dance Disaster Movement (DDM), Kill Me Tomorrow or Glass Candy before, but there was something appealing about Austin Chronicle listing under Recommended Music for the week of August 4 -10. Read it aloud and it sounds suspiciously like a fan. For a professional music critic, this is considered dangerous. Reverence for the talent is acceptable. Gushing is not. This is just my impression. It was the first thing I read, and I jumped on it after some other plans for the evening fell through. It was the best thing that could've ever happened to me musically. Socially it was suicide - no date to enjoy it with (booh-hoo). But it wasn't a pity party once I caught the suprise opening act - a trash synth punk band. (They wore garbage bags and electrical tape to make it crystal clear what they sound like.) It wasn't great music, but it was more entertaining than the "toothless pop punk" playing on the radio these days. I still don;t know the name of the band. Or the name of that 70s psychadelic rock meets synth band that I actually enjoyed. They even dressed the part. The burping synthesizer dude with the drooping mustache and dread-like black hair (was he for real?) was actually so annoying he was cool. Yes, he had the colorful open-neck Polly & Esther shirt with chains. Groovy. But I digress with the fashion report....
The synthesizer player was his grooviest when interacting with the audience. At one point he jumped off stage, danced around this pretty girl and jumped in the nearest waste receptacle (a bright euphemism for trash can). I was hooked on Glass Candy. But they weren't Glass Candy, although one of the members played with them later that night. Confused? Me too. Let me explain...
Since I was clueless about who was playing and how they sounded assumed the first band dressed in black garbage bags was Kill Me Tomorrow. In fact I misled a conservatively dressed woman who was also flying solo when I announced that she missed the first band. I think she gave me the evil eye when the actual first act on the bill took the stage, or maybe when I whipped out the MD-R as I noticed the next band setting up was obviously not DDM. I intended to record the headlining performers, but my impulsive nature took over. Good thing, too. Glass Candy - the real Glass Candy - was good. The vocalist reminded me of Blondie. Just a little bit. With programmed synthesizer in the background she got the crowd hype. A few members from the first two bands were dancing at the front of the stage. I don't care what those diehard retirement home metal rockers think - synthesizers rock. This band proved it by linking tasty synth pop with heavy guitar and drum rock. Can't we all just get along that well? I can't list particular tracks. (Just listen to my first monotone, bootleg live recording @ www.myspace.com/diyrevolution August 21). Gwen Stefani could take lessons from this chick. explained that two bands joined in because they didn't want to play competing gigs - or something like that. (Damn earplugs.) After listening to the jagged sweetness of Glass Candy I think the rest of the former No Doubt should sue Gwen's ass. She's got the money from the Bananas song. Forget The Killers, The Bravery or whoever you've been listening to lately. I like their soft new wave rock vibe, but it lacks a certain edge that I'm hearing from Glass Candy. OK - you now know where I stand with this band.
Kill Me Tomorrow was more challenging to my ears. Thanks to a couple of alcoholic beverages I was getting a little sleepy. The trippy Gong-like music wasn't helping either. So I sat down on the comfortable side bench and pretended to medititate. The Gary Oldman look-alike lead vocalist/percussionist/synth ops man woke me up with the beat of a drum at the end of the sound check. The melodic blass player, a blond lady with skunk streak bangs (who also reminded me of Blondie), and the frenetic guitarist kept up the pace with the intimidating but talented drummer. It's not the best recording, but listen to the sound check on the second track of the concert @ MySpace for proof that this is a bad, bad man. His vocals are grating, and the a lot of the rhythms he pounded out were not easily danceable. Yet he got the crowd moving, and he dad my complete attention. This is definitely not synth pop. The second brief song had an almost pulsating hip hop beat with erratic guitar riffs, and I thought I was in love with the man for a moment. The rest of the audience probably had the same reaction. Dark primal synth would be the best description for Kill Me Tomorrow. They sounded almost improvisational at times, which may frustrate - or annoy - some listeners. For other it's a primal dance experience worth hearing. The only way to describe it: Kill Me Tomorrow is a land bridge between the continental divide of Experimental American Rock and European Ambient Techno.
With Dance Disaster Movement I had a few preconceived notions from the description in the AC that were completely dismissed with the opener. Keyboardist, guitarist and human synthesizer Kevin Disco and drummer Matt Howze continued the primal dance beat. It was symphony of organ-like notes and heavy beats. I was expecting funky, quirky dance rhythms, and two guys dressed all in white doing the centipede or breakdancing across the stage. Oh, there was a little of that. Mr. Disco & Mr. Howze were in fabulous form. With the second song it was evident that this would be a beautiful disaster. The dissonant keyboards and driving drum beat had me as mesmerized as the vocalist almost chanted the lyrics. He played to the crowd with the holes in his valentine t-shirt. (Was that a red thong underwear peaking out the back of his trousers?) And there was even crowd participation with the audience (myself included) chanting along "Way-oh!" (or something like that). Then it became a pep rally for the anti-sports league. More audience participation? I didn't know where this was headed with the chants, and I was a bit skeptical. But the music soon had me not thinking so much, which is sometimes a good thing. By the end of the show, DDM delivered an electric performance that rivaled the best traditional indie rockers.
Hearing these bands live I felt as though I somehow belonged to a community of outcasts and aliens, which is easy to feel in a land of homogenization that frowns on differences that aren't automatically marketable to the masses. Today's punk has become re-packaged and gone pop. Some of it is actually worth listening to, don't misunderstand me. But planned suburban living to escape the undesirable elements (?) of urban dwellings, generic strip malls and witnessing people talking on cell phones in front of cashiers taking their orders has an alienating effect. This definitely comes out in the varying forms of musical expression with all of the bands that performed tonight. The result was unifying the music and the listener. It was people connecting through music in a world of hardwired and wireless extremes. I'll let Dance Disaster Movement have the last words in this blog review:
"Hey. Let it move. Make it right. Dance. Dance. Dance. Dance.
Lift up, take a stand. Revitalize. Dance. Dance. Dance. Dance.
Rise, captivate. Make a move. Dance. Dance. Dance. Dance.
Try, let it be. Make it through. Dance. Dance. Dance. Dance."*
~ diy-danna
* From the track "Seizure" - We Are From Nowhere (2003 LP).
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