Fennesz and Mike Patton

yevveh

haha, I heard all those shouts. Didn't exactly know what to make of it but I knew there'd be a lot of people who were gonna be very surprised. Patton probably thrives on **** like that, anybody see when FNM were supposed to be finished their set on MTV and Patton kept screaming into the mic only to have the rest of the band join in and completely embarrass the host? Anyway, I'd pretty much describe the gig as a cross between Merzbow and Sunn 0))) but probably with a bit more electronica. Not that I listen much to either of them.

Eirebear

I thought the whole crowd was fairly disrespectful to fennesz.
I'll be honest and say i wouldnt have went to the gig if it wasnt for patton as i had never heard of fennesz before now, but there were two guys on that stage, not just patton.

I found it really weird when i saw a guy in a Suspended Animation T shirt describing the gig as "pointless, wierd, Bull****"....dude have you ever listened to the album on your t shirt?.... in terms of what that album does, it wasnt all that far removed.

Again, all i can say is im dissapointed in the completely uneducated crowd that went along to it, if your a patton fan, you should know how diverse, seemingly random, and odd his music can get.

Was there any people out there who went to see it for fennesz? (John?) what did you guys think of it from that point of view?

Parhelia

A highly enjoyable evening - as already pointed out the first two support bands were quite good.

Crowd were once again unbelievable (It was the same at Tomahawk + Fantomas). What sort of dickhead spends 25 euro without checking out some samples first?

Jonzer

Eirebear wrote:

I thought the whole crowd was fairly disrespectful to fennesz.

I did not notice people being openly disrespectful to Fennesz though I certainly did notice how many obvious FNM, Mr Bungle and Tomahawk fans there who obviously did not know what was coming. I got pretty much exactly what I expected from the gig and liked it for what it was - atonal, random avant garde noise. Well worth the €25. Then again, I like Fantomas and Naked City so am quite the fan of random, improvised noise.

New Tomahawk album out next month. Yay!

Eirebear

Jonzer wrote:

I did not notice people being openly disrespectful to Fennesz though I certainly did notice how many obvious FNM, Mr Bungle and Tomahawk fans there who obviously did not know what was coming. I got pretty much exactly what I expected from the gig and liked it for what it was - atonal, random avant garde noise. Well worth the €25. Then again, I like Fantomas and Naked City so am quite the fan of random, improvised noise.

New Tomahawk album out next month. Yay!

its already available from all your usual illegal outlets
really good it is too!

Mr. Green Genes

I was disappointed anyway. I purposely avoided hearing any of Fennesz' stuff beforehand because I wanted to discover him in a live capacity and I had total faith in Patton as I have since he emerged in the 80's. What I got wasn't very musical. I felt I could have gotten up there and twiddled knobs for awhile and achieved somewhat similar results. I'm always quick to defend music unfairly dubbed 'pretentious', but this stuff almost qualified for my money. Didn't have time to loop in any bass or drum tracks to save us from coma-inducing soundscapes? Too bad. For the record I never booed anyone, I applauded with gusto, and seeing as Mike Patton is my hero I was never bored, I was just glad to see him back in Dublin working in a new capacity again, and I hope the next gig is different again. I had to laugh at that "play Easy" comment too, that's pretty thick.

It's fair to berate anyone who berates those artists who they've paid to see and disrupt the atmosphere for people in the process, but calling people idiots for not liking minimalist electronica? Doesn't make a lick of sense to me. It's all relative. I know I can handle anything Patton creates or lends his talent to (Maldoror, Adult Sounds For Voice, Moonchild are some of the tougher ones that spring to mind), and i'm always open to giving and recieving criticism about his work (and his sometimes apparent complacency these days - a result of too much hero worship?), but I don't know how you can honestly say that people are idiots for voicing their honest opinions in discerning this stuff from their preferred musical choices.

If you wanna be just as pretentious as Fennesz in claiming that you are somehow mentally superior to people to felt this gig to be underwhelming and mostly devoid of musical innovation (there were a few great moments I admit), then I can only feel sorry for you.

Anyway, as far as i'm concerned, it's all downhill after Mr. Bungle split anyway (but there's always hope with John Zorn keeping him working), so there's always gonna be a degree of frustration. Looking forward to the new Tomahawk nonetheless! If like me your favourite band is still Mr. Bungle, do yourselves a favour and check out Trey Spruance's band Secret Chiefs 3. Avant-Garde Arabic Surf Rock Baby!

John

Eirebear wrote:

Was there any people out there who went to see it for fennesz? (John?) what did you guys think of it from that point of view?

It wasn't Fennesz's best work but there were a few bits I thought were great. Overall it wasn't a particularly memorable gig. Patton could have been with anyone and I feel he would have done the same thing, no real connection with the music. I did a review of it for those interested (saves me typing all my points again!).