Kayo Dot in Atlanta, GA - Nov. 9, 2008

A friend of mine who ultimately couldn't make it to the show due to academic obligations told us that it was Mia Matsumiya's (the band's violinist) birthday, so we decided to take it upon ourselves to bake her a cake with a harlequin fetus drawn in icing on top to satisfy Mia's... appetite for the grotesque? This cake somehow became nearly as fundamental to our enjoyment of the show as the music itself.

We got lost on the way to the venue because we, for whatever reason, opted to use Google Maps directions rather than the directions posted on the venue's web site. We ended up parking in the back parking lot of a fitness center to ask for directions, and the receptionist there was unfortunately not a great deal more useful to our finding the venue than our Google Maps directions. He told us to walk towards the Kroger and look for a place that looks underground and hidden, basically. So we ended up walking down the street until we found a place that looked sufficiently ornately decorated to be a music venue. It ended up being less than a quarter mile away from where we parked, so it wasn't a huge issue.

We walked through what we initially thought was the main entrance to the venue (and later found out was the load-in area), and oddly enough the first person we saw was Mia, although it didn't register that it was her until a few seconds after we'd introduced ourselves and walked back outside. We decided to run back to the car, which was still in the car a few hundred yards away, to grab the cake, but by the time we made it back, Mia had left the merch table and was nowhere to be found.

So we sat awkwardly outside the venue with a cake until the doors opened. We came inside and looked around, but I think at this point nearly every member of every band playing was backstage. We were approached by a guy who I actually only saw once during the entire show -- he must have been a member of the venue's staff. He told us to go to the bar and ask for Mia.

And so we did. The bartender went to fetch her, but rather than coming into the bar area, she walked out to the merch table again. I wasn't sure it was her at first since she'd changed her clothes and probably applied some makeup, but she's pretty easy to pick out of a crowd.

We finally met up with her and were able to give her a cake not too long before the first band of the night, Keelhaul, started playing. It took her a few seconds to register what we'd drawn on the cake, but when she did she seemed really happy about it -- she said it was one of the best things any of her fans had given her and offered us all hugs.

And that's all before the music started!

We actually missed the beginning of Keelhaul's set since we were going back and forth between my car and the venue, and a few of us went to eat at a nearby restaurant. I hadn't heard them prior to this show, but I liked what I heard. If I had to describe them, I guess I would say they're aggressive technical metal, although maybe not quite to the extent of Meshuggah or something of that nature. Keelhaul's music doesn't completely disregard melody. I remember trying fruitlessly to tap along to the music, but their time signatures were so frequently changing that this was impossible. They didn't communicate with the crowd a whole lot -- they pretty much let the music speak for itself.

Steve Brodsky was next, and I was almost equally unfamiliar with his work. I'd previously checked out some of his stuff on MySpace and came away with the sentiment that his music was very strange. But what I heard at the show was nothing like I remembered. He was a solo act, so his performance was more personal than the others, and he communicated with the audience more than anyone else at the show, from what I saw. He provided brief descriptions of each of his songs before playing them, which was helpful given that I was unfamiliar with most of his work. The  His set was a refreshing breather for the aural rape of Keelhaul and the intensity of Kayo Dot.

While each of the acts preceding them was very impressive, we ultimately came to see Kayo Dot. They actually began setting up prior to the Steve Brodsky's act but still probably took longer to finish setting up than the other bands, although that may have been because my anticipation to hear them was higher. Kayo Dot's instrumentation and sound is more dense than any of the other bands who played that night. They had two electric guitars, a Yamaha digital piano, an m-audio synth, a clarinet, saxphone, clarinet, electric violin, laptop keyboard-thingie, a tambourine, and an array of effects pedals, among other instruments that I probably missed. Keep in mind that this is without the band's full crew The band had some minor issues with feedback during the soundcheck, but nothing that delayed their performance more than a minute or so.

Following the sound check, the band broke somewhat unexpectedly into Marathon, the first song on the band's set list for the night. Kayo Dot's live music is even more arhythmic than their studio work -- Toby Driver conducts the band through a series of exaggerated nods and guitar strums. I'm not sure how, but Toby seems to continuously improve his vocals over time by astronomical bounds. His singing is some of the best I've ever heard, and his screams, while not as tonal in a live atmosphere, are earth-shattering in intensity.

Their next songs were Blue Lambency Downward and Clelia Walking from their newest album. Blue Lambency Downward (the album as a whole) really does seem to come alive in a live atmosphere. Especially impressive here was David Bodie, who has to be one of the most underrated drummers in progressive music. The drumming on Blue Lambency Downward is more complex and jazzy than on any of their previous albums, and while Bodie isn't the drummer featured on the studio recordings, he handles it live without any slip-ups. The musical communication between Bodie and Driver is fascinating to watch.

After the band finished playing Clelia Walking, Bodie thanked us for the cake and the rest of the band followed suit -- it was pretty cool to get a shout-out from them on stage. Kayo Dot closed with Gemini Becoming the Tripod, the introductory piece to Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue. The atmosphere of this piece was really brought to life in a live setting. I felt like I had a pretty good grasp on Kayo Dot's music coming into the show, but I can definitely see why it's been said that Dowsing Anemone is their live album.

It's not easy to describe what made this show so incredible -- if you can listen to either of Kayo Dot's first two albums especially and can't see how something like that wouldn't be incredible in a live setting, I don't know what to tell ya. The band was an extremely impressive musical ensemble -- very few mistakes were made, which is impressive given the complexity of their arrangements. And the music was played so passionately that it wouldn't have mattered if there were many.

The venue was fairly well-populated for its size, although there were only 70 to 80 people at the show, I'd say. I only met two people at the show who were there to see Kayo Dot, although I'm sure there were more. Pelican seemed to be drawing the majority of the crowd. Everyone at the show seemed pretty nice and we sat right next to the stage for both Steve Brodsky and Kayo Dot.

To top everything off, the band was extremely accessible. Toby, Mia, and Terran were chilling behind the merch table for the majority of the show. They were selling t-shirts, CDs and hand-made tablature booklets for the Blue Lambency Downward album. I was able to talk to Toby for a good five or ten minutes, and we were able to get our pictures taken with each of them. They signed some autographs, and they were each extremely nice and personable. Unfortunately, I never saw David Bodie come out from backstage, so I didn't get a chance to talk with him. We could have talked to them a lot more had we wanted to, but since I'd only occasionally exchanged messages with Toby, there wasn't a lot of common conversational ground that demanded urgent attention or anything. I wanted to avoid seeming overly pushy or seeming as though I was a part of the Mia-worshiping fan club that I assume exists, but I probably failed miserably on both fronts. Regardless, it was a blast~

Unfortunately, one of our group had to wake up for work at 5AM, so we bailed after one of Pelican's songs. It seemed like a pretty good performance, but it was hard to pay too much attention after Kayo Dot rocked our socks off and such. I really wish I had more to say about their performance, but our exposure to them was pretty limited.

Kayo Dot has a few more shows left in their tour in Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Canada, and New York. If you're free, I'd highly recommend going to one of their shows -- it was possibly the best live music experience I've had.

Can I say how jealous I am of you two for getting to see Kayo Dot.

Nice review there.

Keelhaul is also cleared for addition here... I hope they are still with them tomorrow.  Ask them for a bio