|
Fantomas, the Locust and Trevor Dunn’s Trio Convulsant Arriving at the Cradle, I couldn’t decide whether this was a lot of people to see Mike Patton or just a few. Given this evening’s slate of music was a far cry from the ordinary Chapel Hill indie-rock love fest and that this show was near capacity was seemingly a nod towards a shitload of people for Patton in NC. The opening band was Mr. Bungle employee Trevor Dunn’s project. The Trio simply features a guitarist, the big upright bass and drum kit. The Trio banged away on their free-form noise jazz for close to too long as the bass and drums held the only inkling of pleasure, while the too loud guitar was downright terrible. Seriously, in this style of music, you want to at least give the impression that you could play if forced – and the guitarist did little to support that claim. Everyone’s favorite San Diego noise, blasting four-piece the Locust followed in short order. The Locust are well-appreciated within the underground music world as being just fucking mind blowing and a sight to see. To this point in time, my only exposure came from an infinite number of records that I’ve attained over time as well as what Mr. Frech had shown me in the past – mostly as a function of their ridiculous vinyl (like a puzzle pieces release!). Decked in matching long-sleeve shirts with partial masks that left open their mouths, the Locust came out arrayed in a semi-circle behind the drummer. The keyboardist had this massive electronic display thing – it really was just some ‘thing’ – that only promised to cause trouble in the future. As the Locust started off, I wondered if fans actually knew which songs were which as the band typically slaughters all their under-one-minute numbers. Flat out and the most obvious thing to say was how damn tight the Locust were. In this respect, drummer Gabe Serbian was absolutely fucking mind-blowing – the best live drummer I’ve ever seen. His perfect timing mixed with perfect hits – e.g., cymbal smash grabs – illustrated why the Locust have such a brilliant following. If all the rumors and partial truths are true about the Locust’s drug use, it could only be things that massively increase your reflects and awareness. If you have the opportunity to see the Locust, even you aren’t a number fan of their recorded material, you have to do it just to experience them. It really is hard to imagine how tight they are with their attack songs when everything could so easily fall apart into absolute crap. Given the Locust jaw-dropping, short twenty-minute display, the awe-inspiring Fantomas were set to take the stage. Even if you have never heard of them before, if I told you that they included the drummer from Slayer, the guitarist from the Melvins, Dunn and Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, etc.), you would at least be interested. My last run in with Patton at his performance with Razhel last year in NYC left something massively to be desired. I was hoping that they wouldn’t take for ever to come on stage, that they wouldn’t be completely bombed and that Patton wouldn’t be entirely aimless. If that was accomplished then we would have a much better start than a year ago. And it was so. Situated along the stage, Patton (or maybe Johnny Depp) launched into the Fantomas’ catalogue with a typical vast number of toys at his disposal – several keyboards/electronics, mics and baby doll heads. Blasting through a nearly hour set, Patton only forced his band to play one song more than once as he believed it wasn’t up to snuff; yet, I’ve heard he has had them play numerous songs over and over if not up to his liking. Still, and even with the Slayer drumming, the Fantomas seemed little match for the Locust. Even the enormous Mike Patton fan that I was at the show with conceded the Locust demolished the competition, enough so that he even bought a shirt.
copyright exoduster.com 2005 |
