OFF: "Alchemysts" report

[K Henderson]

Well, it figures.  Just my luck.  The Alchemysts were apparently hanging out
in NY waiting for their visas to come in, and so they are missing the first
two shows of the tour.  And of course, those are the only two I could easily
go to.

I did turn up to the High Five last night, and discovered right away that
Aytobach Kreisor (Rubric labelmates from NYC I learned) was actually there
and thought that looked promising for the Alchemysts actually making it as
well.  But I soon discovered that was not to be.  But I still hung around as
Rubric is a good label, mostly for being a Woronzow bridge to the USA, and
thought maybe Kreisor might be worth hanging around for.

The night started strangely as a band from San Diego whose name (I think)
was "Drop Science" jumped up at 10:40 PM, and produced a half-hour's worth
of featureless loud music....not really punk, nor stoner, nor metal....kinda
in between and so rather forgetful.

Then after a short break, a different trio of lads climbed up there with a
bunch of interesting things including a trash can and two bright lights that
backlit the stage from our perspective.  The opening six minutes or so was
really cool, very throbbing hypnotic synthetic beats and strange noises
(guitars played with drumsticks a la glissando) and loopy things added, very
much like the stuff on Faust's "Ravvivando" (surprisingly good album).
However, that was just the intro (sigh), and the rest of their performance
was quite obnoxious industrial music with way too many loud shrieky noises.
I think they were called Champagne Kiss (odd name for the type of band they
were), and said something about Minneapolis, MN (I assume their
hometown)...and there I was missing Joe Mays pitch a perfect inning at the
time!  :(  (Go Twins.)

So then Aytobach Kreisor set up and went on at quite a late hour.  Probably
12:45 or so.  They were a solid power trio band with not much in the way of
psychedelia.  The drummer was able to do a lot of things, but wasn't
particularly sound fundamentally-speaking, so the band was a little loose
now and again.  But mainly they were just too 'ordinary' for my tastes, but
to this point the best group of the night.  The strange thing was that the
audience (perhaps maxing out at 40 for Champagne Kiss) all drifted out to
the back patio and hardly anyone stayed to see them play.  This club is
normally for the goth crowd (the owner runs a record store just down the
street, which is very goth-industrial-oriented...wear black and bits of
face-metal with lots of tattoos, and you'll fit right in).

Anyway, after their set I learned that indeed the Alchemysts were not there,
and sadly would not be in Cincy tonight either (I would have driven down
there tonight to see them if so, since it's only 90 minutes and the
SouthGate House is a cool place to see a show.)  But the AK guy said they
should meet up with them tomorrow in Chicago.  F*ing annoying I tell you.
Well, perhaps that big eight-day gap between Oklahoma and Boston will
include a show in Cleveland's Speaking-in-Tongues.  I'll keep checking the
RubricRecords.com site for any additional dates.

Finally, there was one final band that went on at the amazing hour of 1:40
AM. They were actually supposed to be the first band of three (the other two
being the Rubric bands), and were local to Columbus.  I didn't catch their
name, but they were a kinda melodic folkrock trio with keyboards, guitar and
an odd drumkit with bongos in place of toms.  I actually thought they were
the best of the four groups, but I only stayed until 2 AM - not sure how
long they played. Everyone came back in from outside so they ended up with a
decent group of folks hanging around.

I guess what happened is that the first two bands were touring together,
came into Columbus to find that the club they were scheduled to play had
actually closed down in the last few days (never heard of the place), and so
somehow managed to sneak onto the evening's lineup (to the dismay of
Aytobach Kreisor) at the High Five.  Whatever the case, it was an odd
grouping of four completely disparate groups.  And no bloody Alchemysts!  :(

Grakkl (FAA)

Alchemysts(NOPE)/Aytobach Kreisor High Five, 1227 N. High St., Columbus, OH
Tuesday July 10, 2001

Alchemysts(NOPE)/Aytobach Kreisor South Gate House, 24 E. 3rd St., Newport, KY
Wednesday July 11, 2001

Alchemysts(YEP)/Aytobach Kreisor Loft Party, 1348 W. 18th, Chicago, IL
Thursday July 12, 2001

Alchemysts/Aytobach Kreisor Hairy Mary's, 2307 University Ave., Des Moines, IA
Friday July 13, 2001

Alchemysts/Aytobach Kreisor Knickerbockers, 901 O St., Lincoln, NE
Tuesday July 17, 2001

Alchemysts/Aytobach Kreisor 15th St. Tavern, 623 15th St., Denver, CO
Wednesday July 18, 2001

Alchemysts/Aytobach Kreisor Jay's Upstairs, 119 W. Main, Missoula, MT
Friday July 20, 2001

Alchemysts/Aytobach Kreisor Graceland, 109 Eastlake Ave. E., Seattle, WA
Saturday July 21, 2001

Alchemysts/Aytobach Kreisor Club Satyricon, 125 NW Sixth Ave., Portland, OR
Sunday July 22, 2001

Alchemysts/Aytobach Kreisor Zephyr Bar, 1074 South Virginia St, Reno, NV
Wednesday July 25, 2001

Alchemysts/Aytobach Kreisor Capitol Garage Coffee Co., 1427 L St.,
Sacramento, CA
Thursday July 26, 2001

Alchemysts/Aytobach Kreisor House Party, Davis, CA
Saturday July 27, 2001

Alchemysts/Aytobach Kreisor Knitting Factory, 7021 Hollywood Blvd., Los
Angeles, CA
Sunday July 29, 2001

Alchemysts/Aytobach Kreisor Solar Gallery, Tuscon, AZ
Monday July 30, 2001

Alchemysts/Aytobach Kreisor Green Room, Oklahoma City, OK
Wednesday August 1, 2001

Alchemysts/Aytobach Kreisor T.T. The Bears, 10 Brookline St., Cambridge, MA
Thursday August 9, 2001

Alchemysts/Aytobach Kreisor Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard St., New York, NY
Sunday August 12, 2001