electro folk fusion

First off are the hometown heroes of Sound and Vision. I first became aware of these kids at Lexington's Freeky Fest, back at the end of May. They were that 4 piece xylophone outfit playing the second stage right as I got to the festival--missed Big Fresh because I had to nap, but that is another story--Sound and Vision with their tight ethereal beats for me created an imaginary boundary of sound, transforming the parking lot into an exotic market outside of regular space and time. But I digress, the point here is that they just blew me away in May and I couldn't wait to see what they did at the shack. Sorry, I didn't catch any names but I'll just call them guys 1, 2, and 3. First we had 3 very separate and distinct solo performances. Right away you these kids are very serious about what they do--all 3 played pre-composed pieces but I believe only Guy 1 played an original piece. Interestingly, he was the only one who actually read sheet music going line by line word for word beat for beat. That first piece was quite frantic--quick finger movements over a not very big drum--some sort of sounded vaguely african chanting--a little pid-pack-a-dop-(guttural)sheeeshack--building and breaking out into english, each syllable a beat--"and he was bleeding from his wounds"--I believe the subject was a motorcycle wreck, I couldn't really be sure, but something of deadly intensity, a long sigh of relieve as the crowd in the living room comes back from this place of sheer passion and violence--and you thought avant garde drumming was going to be dull--next up is a cover originally composed by our very own Jordan Munsen of Karate Jones Duo fame--Guy 2 is a master of the slide across the drum head that sounds like whale songs--then as he lulls us into these deep waters he introduces faster fish--intricate finger slaps--the name of the piece is Those Who I Fight I Do Not Hate--and you can sense both the antagonism and the deep sense of perspective behind the conflict--really a very moving piece--Guy 3 used an entire kit, though he had mounted an assortment of strange doodads over his set--he played with 2 sticks in both hands and did strange little syncopations--bad-a-bip-bap--sometimes almost spinning around to lightly slap a drum at an opposite angle--now it's almost dusk and I start to feel like he is teasing the night from the dusk--like laughter from a tickle--something shifts--they play 1 more all 3 together--all 3 playing their everything including the kitchen sink kits--pots, bells, weird little obviously sculpted for sounds--this last piece sounds the most like traditional drum beats--they play off each other and step into the now--and it rocks.
This wasn't the end of the night for the Shack, far from it, the evening was just begun--but I'm realizing that in order not to give the other band short shift, I will stop the blog here for today and write about the rest of the show after a little rest for me--quantum blog bits--a little patience and we'll get through this together--'til then keep rocking.