Godwaffle Noise Pancakes 2/21
By Stephen McMullin
There is an argument to be made that in a world gone mad, insanity is the only sane response. Shrieking hollerings from all sides — be they advertisers, newscasters, politicians or just that prick in an SUV who thinks it’s his Xenu-given right to honk his damn horn at everything that makes his eyebrow twitch in irritation for a split-second — mean that it’s always appropriate to quote the great Hunter S. Thompson’s words of wisdom: “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” People, people — the going has gotten weird and, thankfully, the weird have taken this call to arms seriously.
“Hm?” You might say, quite reasonably.
“Godwaffle Noise Pancakes,” is my retort.
“Oh.”
This past month, specifically Sunday the 21st of February 2010, saw SF’s port of call for experimental weirdness — The Lab — infested with noisemakers, some of whom had yet to get home after a hard Saturday night’s tequila party. Noisemakers and pancake-makers — because why not?
First of the day was Multifungi whose performance was… Well it was like… It was kind of… Um… Have a look at the video, because it defies explanation. Droning electronic noise combined with live stop-motion animation. No, this is not a joke, nor is it a drill. Awesomeness.
Next, local noisemaker Thomas Dimuzio teamed up with Pittsburg, PA’s Gregg Bielski to become, in true Power Ranger-style, Megagord 256. Yes, ‘gord’, not ‘zord’ - we’ll have no trademark issues here, thanks. Sonic texture, loop-magic and eardrum wobbling bliss ensued.
Following these two equipment-heavy acts was the stripped down Gumball Rimpoche - a man whose microphone and pedal combo proved more than the match of any amount of computerized techno-wizardry. Still not entirely sure what the hell happened, whether it was one man being meddled with or some kind of group performance piece. Either way…
Then came the first actual instrument of the day (unless you count T. Dimuzio’s keyboard - for the purposes of this blog I do not) as Windowpain Industries’ Steve whipped out a guitar to go along with his box of pedals and wires. There were fears that this was going to turn into singer-songwriter night at the Gaslight for all of about five seconds, until a screwdriver took the place of a guitar pick. Nice.
And finally, Gregg Bielski returned to centre stage, this time as Easy Bake Oven (which explains the chef jacket). Ever wondered how much noise one man and a pair of drumsticks can make? Wonder no more - the video speaks for itself. (Spoiler alert! The answer is “A lot of noise, provided he also has some form of synth-drum-loop-magic-machine-box…”)
And that, for this month, is that. We toddle off with ears bled and mind boggled and belly full of ginger-infused pancakes until next month, which will hopefully be the next time we have to be out of bed before midday on a Sunday…