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Animal Hospital is doing something special tonight, having designed and set up a show in quad at Planet Aid. (Which, alas, is closing for good tomorrow, so there's a poignantly valedictory air and a 75% off sale, and how weird to shop for clothes while waiting for the show to start.) This means speakers in the corners, with his setup in the middle of the floor and the audience encouraged to sit around him. His setup, for those unfamiliar, is a small drumkit, a guitar, and a bewildering array of pedals, mixers, and looping equipment. He will play a swell of guitar feedback and set it looping, then play a pretty arpeggio over it and set that looping, then perhaps a simple drum pattern, and maybe a psychotic fill, and continue in this way, building his sound out of layer upon layer upon layer of loops. His normal approach is to gradually fade new layers in and old ones out, so that the music very slowly evolves from one "song" to the next, and tonight there's the additional complication of apportioning the sound among the four speakers, so that some lines will appear in different parts of the room at different times. (This additional complexity is probably the cause of the few apparent miscues, when things drop in or out with a jarring suddenness that doesn't really fit into the rhythm of the ongoing piece.) There are a lot of interesting musical ideas here. I feel like they go by a bit too slowly; some things repeat long enough for me to actually get bored. But the advantage of that, besides the meditative feel of the music, is that each new idea comes with a wonderful feeling of newness, so that the set is a long series of nice surprises.
After that, we bolt for the Middle East, coming in during Baby Ray's set. On my first (necessarily rapid) pass through the room they sound very much like a sweet pop band. (Two different people compare them to XTC afterward.) On second listen, they've developed a twang, and that gently countrified feel persists for a couple of songs before they take a weird left turn, spiralling off into King Crimson territory with a series of crafty guitar arpeggios and interesting rhythms. It stays tight and tuneful all the while, and it all adds up to a very impressive set.
Count Zero's set starts a little strangely, as Peter and Eric take the stage alone and play a new song (a very new song, from what Peter says) on just piano and drums, while the rest of the band looks on in apparent confusion. Then they come on and proceed with their set as planned. Count Zero have been a five-piece the last couple of times I've seen them, but tonight they're officially a five-piece; Elizabeth Steen has formally left the band. This is sad, and she'll be missed. So I feel kind of guilty for enjoying the opportunity to hear these very familiar songs with interesting new arrangements. Some members of the band seem kind of down under the circumstances, but aside from the occasional technical difficulties (without which it wouldn't be a Count Zero set), they sound great. There's one more unfamiliar song, which proves to be a Britney Spears cover.
The Rudds, in contrast, are fully staffed tonight, with Andrea and Tony just back from a tour in Italy. Their drummer also played in Baby Ray, yet he seems tireless. This is the second time I've seen them in this configuration, with a new keyboard player and with Andrea Gillis singing backup, and I feel like it's much better integrated this time. The keyboard player gets a few raucous piano solos in between Brett's over-the-top guitar leads, and Andrea has a couple of chances to cut loose and wail. She's a fine backup singer, but I hated to see her and not get at least a little of the fire that she's capable of. They play a couple of good new songs, and the set is overall a good balance of rowdy, freaky rockers and slower (although often equally freaky) ballads. And, as ever, John Powhida is a star, the holy union of Fred Schneider's sensibility and Prince's voice(s).
