Chapterfest - 19 September 2009 - Tote Hotel, Melbourne
Bum Creek, Dick Diver, Primitive Calculators, the Twerps, Jeremy Dower Y Las Palmeras de plástico, Hit the Jackpot, Minimum Chips, Pikelet, and Tenniscoats
This is a good way to see bands. 9 bands over an evening, about 30 minutes each. No time to get too bored if any of them are not so great.
When I get there, Bum Creek are already playing. Or something like that. I guess they would be like freeform noise jazz, or something along those lines. There are some genres of music, no matter if I actually like the music or not, that just make laugh, like Norwegian death metal, for example. Oh, they intend for some gigantic warrior god to come crashing out of the sky and crush you like a bug and bury you under a mile of snow and melt it all again with flames, and whatever, but when they are screaming and playing as fast as they can, I just giggle a bit.
But freeform jazz too, it makes me chuckle. There are three of them, two playing various combinations of keyboards and horns and trumpets and bouncing things off tambourines, and then one guy on drums and percussion (more percussion than drums). They have magnificent facial hair and run around like apes, hovering over their keyboards, pounding on them, playing with with their feet, and making a racket. It is a performance that would fit right into a WFMU broadcast. The one song goes like 20 minutes and towards the middle, they have a pretty good groove, a nice rhythm and assortment of noises, but towards the end they start to lose me and I get a little bored. I guess I mostly liked it, but I'm not sure. People clap and cheer at the end and the band makes a performance out of cheering and yelling themselves for another minute or two, the drummer plays the walls and ceiling, and then it is done.
Better zip up upstairs and check out Dick Diver. It is pretty good too, two stages alternating, so you don't have to wait for the boring setting up and tearing down between bands. Now, Dick Diver, I really liked them. They look so young. Maybe it is just me but I hear just so much Go-Betweens in a lot of these Chapter bands. They have a quiet sound, long chord progressions, sort of half spoken singing, but they also have a nice bit of noise and feedback underneath it all. A pretty good set, I'll have to check them out again sometime.
When I get back downstairs, Primitive Calculators are playing. It is a funny setup on stage, looking like a rock band but with a guy sitting in the middle at a table behind a laptop. Looks a bit like he is telecommuting or something. But he is running the drum machine from it. I wonder if he just sampled their original drum machine because the beats are totally crude and primitive, between him and the bass, they totally have a great Suicide sound. It would have been cool to seen them launch into Frankie Teardrop (and not Joy Division like some dork kept yelling from the audience). Or maybe a Metal Urbain primitiveness without the shouting in French.
Primitive Calculators are pretty legendary, starting back in the late 70s with the rest of punk, but unlike the Birthday Party and others they hung out with, didn't quite make it and then took 29 years off. A shame, because they are pretty cool. So, a cheezy sounding keyboard and bass player playing simple driving things, and guitar player making lots of noise and bellowing total nonsense. One song was like '1979, nothing, 1980, nothing, 1981, ...'. Maybe that was a band history song. So, yeah, I guess they are playing around more now, so I'll have to check them out again.
Then upstairs, I'm a little disappointed by the Twerps. They opened for the Bats a month or so ago and I thought they were great then. Tonight, they seem a bit off, out of tune, not quite together, I don't know what it was, it just didn't do it for me like they did the last time. It is probably a tough stage to play, the upstairs one, crammed back into an alcove and everybody watching has to crowd into a long hallway to see anything.
Back downstairs to see Jeremy Dower Y Las Palmeras de plástico. I wasn't too into them either. Jeremy Dower plays a pedal steel guitar, the other two guys on a handheld touch electronic percussion pad and the other guy alternating between an unusual pipe and a keyboard. Jazz with an Hawaiian guitar edge, maybe?
Upstairs again to see Hit the Jackpot. Maybe I'm getting tired by now but they didn't do it for me either. They all rotate instruments a lot, so maybe that helps a bit with the variety, but still there is a bit of sameness in it all, rather simple noisy songs (a description not a judgement). Now, I really like the intros to a lot of the songs, they start rocking but then into the song and it just didn't seem to go anywhere. It was the small upstairs stage again, maybe I'll have to give them another chance in a different venue.
Minimum Chips are playing downstairs by the time I get back down. I guess they have been around for a while but haven't played together for a while too. Guy is playing bass for them now, sort of busy basslines. They have a nice cheezy keyboard sound and a bit of jangle in the guitars. I imagine Stereolab has been mentioned in conjunction with them before. They are nice but I'm pretty tired by now.
Upstairs for Pikelet. The place is really packed by now and I'm stuck back in a corner and can't really see much of anything. They have a little trouble getting set up and it takes a few songs to get the sound right. Two keyboards and an acoustic guitar, and guitar and drums. Kind of spacey psychedelic overtures then switching into quiet acoustic guitar parts. Interesting, I wish I could have seen some of it.
I'm about ready to pack it in. Downstairs Tenniscoats are playing. They have elaborate acoustic guitar pieces with a Japanese woman singing very softly (I assume in Japanese) over it and sometimes playing a pipe or keyboard. I listen to a few songs but just couldn't connect to it. It is time to go home.
Takeaways then, really liked Primitive Calculators and Dick Diver and need to give the Twerps, Pikelet, and Minimum Chips another go.
Primitive Calculators
Pikelet
Bum Creek
