I've been Von Frickled!!

 

For anyone not familiar, this band is truly something else. They play in all white suits that look like those nuclear waste clean up uniforms, complete with all white masks----its like a cross between Devo and Blue Man Group. The music is fantastic----all instrumental band, with a huge Crimson influence, as well as some spacey Floydish, early Porcupine Tree soundscapes, but they are melodic and very rhythmic, kind of like Rush without vocals. They also cite Zappa, Mr. Bungle and The Residents as influences. Any fans of Crimson, PT and Rush would like this band. The costumes add to the spacey bizarreness---much of their music sounds like it could be a soundtrack for some kind of 50s off beat space cult movie, or a bizarre Twilight Zone episode. They can sound alternatively very spacey and proggy, and next sound almost punkish and almost metallic.

 

They actually have a bunch of albums out, only some of which are available on thier small label. At this show they played almost the whole Arrhythmia album, their latest, and a lot off of Mission 4.9, and also a lot of new tunes they are currently recording for a new album. They are also supposed to be releasing a new live album but they have some kind of problem with the label they are trying to get worked out. With titles like Petri Dish Incident, March of the Centipede Army, POD, Attack of the Giant Eyeball, and Protoplasmic Squid Eater, these guys are a fun band to get into.

 

My favorite tunes were Broth of Oblivion, a melodic piece which builds up a nice intensity, POD, the closing track from Mission 4.9, Terra Firma Exodus from 4.9, a very spacey Floydish soundscape, and the best tune of the night, the closing track from Arrhythmia, Wreck of the Hallucinato, which starts out with intense rolling tom toms and searing Crimsonesque angular guitar playing that subsides into sound washes of synths that sound like they are gurgling from an alien landscape, as the band exits the stage.

 

The crowd they draw is a strange mixture of prog nerds like me, college age kids into something different, and small town farm boys who have nothing better to do than drink and act like the band is AC/DC. Their visual image is cool, marred in a bar like Paulies only by the sight of a 300+ pound guy standing smack dab in the front with the Devil's sign up the whole night, so the rest of the seated patrons had to look at his wide buttocks the whole night. Other than that, the sound at the place was surprisingly good for a small club. And for 5 bucks, I can't think of any prog concert that I have ever seen that delivered more bang for the buck.

 

I have seen a lot of bands over the years, and these guys are no pretenders. They have chops (great drummer named John Ganser), they sound good, and it was surreal seeing a band this good in a small bar in the middle of the midwestern prarie of mid Illinois. They are booked to play at ProgDay in North Carolina at the end of the summer, and it will be interesting to see how their live show translates to an outdoor show. They do use lights and a projection screen effectively, including some eerie blue lights that make the white costumes glow, so their show is geared for indoors---they even do a little dry ice. Its going to be hot in those masks in August.

 

I just thought of another band these guys remind me of---Djam Karet, all instrumental band from California that also has a Crimson/Floyd duality.

 

On top of it, I talked with all the band members, got a souvenier shirt and a mask, and bought every cd they had available----nice bunch of guys. Go see them if you live in the midwest--it was well worth the 2 hour drive for me.

 

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