ArthurFest 2005 Day 2

Sunday was about checking things out during the day and the headliners at night. Monday was about two very specific, very different artists... with set-times that scared me by being close.

First band of the day I caught was Dead Meadow. Another band described as a cross between Sabbath and Spacemen 3... heavy and drony... and wow, the sound was bad. It was all lows... and I don't think it was supposed to be. The songs sounded good enough but I was a little eager for it to end, partially because next up was The Olivia Tremor Control setting up for 40 minutes.

Will Cullen Hart was on stage left with Scott Spillane and his sousaphone and cornet (?) behind him. John Fernades was center with a bass, violin and clarinet, Bill Doss was stage right-center; behind them was Julian Koster with a host of instruments (banjo, accordian, plastic sheep, etc.) Stage right was Pete Erchick playing various keyboard instruments and in the back we had Eric Harris playing drums and running the reel-to-reel player. Once they got going, though, they were fantastic and fun. Julian was jumping up and down most of the time, everyone was singing and the music was... well, songs by the Olivia Tremor Control. I was right up in front (only the folks grabbing the barrier in front of me) but the sound was pretty good... except for when we missed a verse of Bill's vocals. They played wonderful and joyous songs... and while I could name a few now it'd so few as to make it less than productive.

Pretty much as soon as that ended I bolted to wait in the line for the Gallery Theater. I was only about 20th in line so I was OK. As sets ended they let folks out while the people holding the doors tried to count how many left so they knew how many they could let in. During sets I assume they manage the people shifts more immediately... but I dunno. I got in about ten minutes before Brad Laner took the stage and once he started playing I pretty much forgot about the concept of outside.

Brad sang - when there were vocals - played guitar - when there was guitar - and ran the laptop wtih drum machine and white noise generators... so everything took a little longer to develop than normal (which is quite a feat.) Behind Brad and his setup they played his movie, 30 minutes of oddly interesting images and shapes, usually kalaidascoped/mirrored/quater-mirrored/or whatever might be the correct term for that sort of visual effects. It was all very peaceful and soothing - since I love the showers of white noise - plus it was cool and dark... I came precariously close to falling asleep... though I very distinctly remember my face starting to glow as I realized he was starting One More. I can begin to describe how glorious it was to hear that bit of music... that was my song highlight of the weekend.

After that I ventured back outside so the folks getting eager to see Earth/Growing/Sun O))) could get in... but in the interest of sleep I'm gonna - temporarily - end this post here.

To be continued...