VIVID Festival: Noise Night

Holy. Fucking. Shit. What. Did. I. Just. Witness?

To start off it's hard to believe that these bands are all playing the Opera House, let alone all on the one night. Always knew tonight was gonna be special, but no idea it would end up being this huge. Not the loudest gig I've ever been to but definitely one of the most sustained.

We walk in to find about 30 people on stage setting gear up and just a dull drone that goes on for about 20 mins before the almighty Zond begin playing. Now if you went to Flip Out last year, you'd know barely anyone got a chance to see them since they opened the doors after they had already started playing, I was always bitter about this, this set was great though, album is out today on RIP Society in fact. The set ends with a massive drum solo from the drummer, doesn't make sense on the recording, but if you were there, you would have seen that like clock work, the entire stage was flooded with crew bumping out all their gear and setting up for the next band while the drum solo went on, they even removed and replace pieces of the kit while he was playing, then the bassist and guitarist from Melt-Banana come out and fill some time with feedback leading into their set.

Zond - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 32mb - 21 minutes

Melt-Banana weren't really suited for the seating environment, but I was blown away by them, the guitarist is beyond amazing. Some really cool sounds and great, punchy and fast songs. Based on this performance I've decided to go see them on Wednesday night as well now. Them pumping out 6-7 songs in their timeslot is pretty funny considering later on Boris only got through one.

Melt-Banana - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 31.6mb - 21 minutes

It was hard to tell but the next set was actually Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson & Sarth Calhoun. It was odd to see such a legend play so far back on the stage while the sound crew wheeled out all of Boris's gear, but it was actually really good, this is what I was expecting to hear last night, Laurie Anderson really added a lot to it.

Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson & Sarth Calhoun - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 19.4mb - 13 minutes

Oren Ambarchi played a short ambient set in the lead up to Boris, I've never had the opportunity to see him, I've only heard various live tapings of his and all sorts of praise from my friends. Totally blown away, this guy is amazing, I wish he was around more often. Some of the highest calibre of music I think I've ever heard.

Oren Ambarchi - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 15.1mb - 11 minutes

Oren Ambarchi remained on stage and joined Boris for one the most face melting 20mins of my life. This was just amazing, they only got through the final Untitled track from Smile, but all of it was amazing. This band, this is the band. Perfect way to close the first half of the set. People really got into it. Four fucking guitars at once though.

Boris & Oren Ambarchi - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 30.3mb - 22 minutes

Now there was an intermission, I don't know if people were only there for Boris, or didn't know there was an intermission at all but half the people left, to be honest I didn't know there was going to be one but had just assumed as such when the house lights came up, but I've heard a lot of stories of people missing the second half of the show, which is when shit got crazy.

Rice Corpse opened the second portion, Lucas Abela playing the fucking Opera House, too be honest it didn't really suit it, I find his performances to be quite confronting and a great time, but a lot of that comes from how close and involved in the crowd he usually is, rather than on a stage 15 or so metres away from anyone. If was after this set that I realised the second portion of the show would have really poor flow, though the biggest cheer of the night was when a vacuum cleaner was brought out to clean up Justice Yeldham's mess, with every cheering for it to be turned up. Noise Night guys.

Rice Corpse - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 17.3mb - 12 minutes

Bardo Pond were up next after a bit of awkward silence, with guest spots from Marc Ribot and Miles Brown. This was probably the loudest part of the night, shame it didn't go for longer but everyone had their time slot I guess. Marc Ribot was amazing to watch.

Bardo Pond, Marc Ribot & Miles Brown - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 27.7mb - 20 minutes

After a way to long intro, there was only enough time for the Night Terrors to get through 2 songs, I could see potential but there just wasn't enough time for them to do their own thing, will be looking out for a solo show of theirs soon enough.

The Night Terrors - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 22.1mb - 16 minutes

Though not on any of the line ups, Yasuko Onuki & Ichirou Agata from Melt-Banana returned to the stage with a different set up and basically trolled the crowd, playing off synth pads, drum machines and all sorts of pedals, they played in complete darkness with only head torches on, playing a constant stop and start set, only giving people enough time to begin playing before starting to blast them with noise again. To be honest, I really liked it. Felt like it went for a life time though.

Yasuka Onuki & Ichirou Agata - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 10.5mb - 7 minutes

Then there was the collaboration. This was amazing, thought I'd never see anything like it, has to be heard to be believed, once again, what I was more expecting from Metal Machine Trio.

Line-Up
Lou Reed - Guitars, Effects
Laurie Anderson - Violin
Sarth Calhoun - Programming (Metal Machine Trio)
Marc Ribot - Guitar
Ichirou Agata - Pedals (Melt-Banana)
Miles Brown - Theremin (The Night Terrors)
Tym Krasevac - Drums (Zond)
Marney MacLeod - Guitar (Zond)
Justin K Fuller - Guitar (Zond)
Matthew Brown - Korg (Zond)

Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Sarth Calhoun, Marc Ribot, Ichirou Agata, Miles Brown, Tym Krasevac, Marney MacLeod, Justin K Fuller & Matthew Brown - Opera House Theatre, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 36.6mb - 25 minutes

After this, Lou Reed thanked us all and hoped we enjoyed it, and then just sat there while everyone walked out. About 80 or so people decided they weren't going anywhere and stared demanding a Zondcore. After much talking with the various people on stage, the lights went off again and a second jam started for the people who were smart enough to stay behind, this was the much better of the two improv sets at the end and was one of the best things I have ever seen.

Line-Up
Lou Reed - Guitars, Effects
Laurie Anderson - Violin
Sarth Calhoun - Programming (Metal Machine Trio)
Ichirou Agata - Guitar, Effects (Melt-Banana)
Jason Kourkounis - Drums (Bardo Pond, Hot Snakes, The Delta 72)
Oren Ambarchi - Drums
Miles Brown - Theremin (The Night Terrors)
Justin K Fuller - Guitar (Zond)
Matthew Brown - Korg (Zond)

Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Sarth Calhoun, Marc Ribot, Ichirou Agata, Jason Kourkounis, Oren Ambarchi, Miles Brown, Justin K Fuller & Matthew Brown - Opera House, Sydney, 31/05/2010 - 30.6mb - 21 minutes

If anyone knows any more info/people I left out from the collabs, let me know.