Last Night in Brattleboro

Thursday night I went to a show at The Future Collective in downtown Brattleboro. That's right, I went all the way into the next state to see my friends play a show. In the parking lot of the downtown area, Ted and I ran into Shannon and Beverly, who were coming from a dinner out. Beverly gave Ted a scarf in the cold night because he was running around with his drums without proper outerwear. He wore it the rest of the night. I was happy to thank them both for agreeing to play a show with the Carbuncles next month. That's right, the amazing, classy-as-hell group Bunwinkies (http://bunwinkies.bandcamp.com/), is playing a show with us at the Rendezvous in Turners Falls Feb 13. They were very sweet about it and went home to Massachusetts. Ted and I joined the lively group upstairs in the venue and settled down for the show.

Rush Awesome set up 6 or 7 tape players and hooked them up to speakers. He set them all to wailing. They sounded almost human so I had to check for a vocalist. I enjoyed the forward motion of the sound and asked the guy later if he had pedals or something that the tape recorders went through but he said no. I resented the time I spent taking notes for this and stopped to listen and hear and savor. 

Tarp played next which was Conrad and Josh doing their thing, as you see in the picture. Josh proceeded with keyboards and Conrad had a pedal or two. They made a drone with slow accents and then surprised us with a higher register section of twirly sounds for a little while. I never got bored and even though I was never really surprised by their set, I had a nice time listening to those guys play.

NonPhurnne played next which was Phurnne: Stephanie and Andrea but instead of Jen Gelineau, Walter Wright sat in. Before starting, Walter said a couple times "I'm Jen." He played a mini synth attached to a queaky pedal and Stephanie played an electronically beating drum, Andrea played prepared squeaky computer. It was pretty nice & then when the drum came up and the squeaks turned to other sounds, it was great: strident alarming insistent and pleasant to hear. Andrea started vocalizing when Stephanie began a fuzzy message and they answered each other & glided alongside each other. The three of them had big thrust of loud excitement before the satisfied ending.

Curse Purse were super great, I wish I could explain and describe their music but the three of them together vocally is inexplicable. They are so moody and delicious and always leave the audience wanting more. Go see them Sunday in Brooklyn. Curse Purse on Sunday Jan 18