Aa are not the first band I’d imagine on a Euro trashtastic stage setup with primo sound equipment (replete with anal retentive sound man, drummer Nadav informed me next night at Silent Barn). They’re sort of the floor-bound type, like their album photos depict, thrashing about with their crazy music, surrounded by a halo of crazy people who see eye to eye, literally, and thrash alongside. That being said, it seemed little was lost in the translation onto a raised performance space strafed with Easter candy colored strobe lights. Delayed-til-Doomsday vocals? Check. Acid-soaked dance hall marching band beats? Check. Broken-beat geek dancing? Check!
xbxrx were loud.
The first row of spectators for the dance-floor situated Lightning Bolt (how came they got to stay on the floor?) was actually a security ring of door people and larger entities. It was completely impossible to get past it, but it was an understandable precaution, given the massive pressure to swarm the band tends to generate. They were the sort of loud that follow you into the next morning. Too bad there is no ear hangover remedy (put ear to more stacked Marshall amps?). I’m usually distracted heavily by Lightning Bolt’s drummer, whose “machine gun” style of playing makes it pretty impossible for the basic head nodding motions that usually lead to dancing. I seemed to be in the minority on this matter, because people were all over it.
