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We come in during The Lothars' set. It's two theremins, a flute, and a hammered dulcimer, with a lot of effects on several of them. There is also a trippy video projection on the wall and ceiling behind them. It's all very psychedelic. The music strikes me as fairly unstructured, more soundscapey than composed. The dulcimer gives a sense of rhythm at times, but is difficult to hear. The sound ebbs and flows, evolving without ever really seeming to change. We get about ten or fifteen minutes of their set, and I enjoy it, but I'm maybe glad I didn't catch the whole thing.
The Spacious Mind are from Sweden. Despite a more conventional instrumentation than The Lothars (which would be true of pretty much anyone), they're mining a somewhat similar vein, in that their sound is slow and ambient. It's more tonally based music, but chords don't really progress in a way that feels to me like they're going anywhere. The drumming is very, very slow and timid; the second half of their set is one long, slow accelerando that only ever gets to mid-tempo, which feels like a gallop by comparison. Kris from The Lothars joins them on theremin for a while, which adds texture but doesn't exactly liven up their sound. They are talented, but I am tired and I have a hard time keeping my attention focused on them.
Major Stars are plenty psychedelic, but they have no problem holding your attention. They are jammy, but also loud and fast and noisy; think Cream being raped by Sonic Youth. They are also grumpy and confrontational—Kate puts down her guitar in mid-song to go for a beer when no one responds to her request that the audience bring her one—and they don't really respect a lot of boundaries with the audience. They are too many for PA's small stage, so the three guitarists set up out in front of the stage, and the singer wanders into their area to sing, then wanders away during and between songs. She's a great, bluesy wailer when she does sing. The rhythm section are excellent, wild and weird enough not to seem out of place, yet solid enough to ground all this weirdness in measures and songs. I feel slapped awake.
