Autechre Autechre in SF on Sat

[kcinsu]

autechre kicked ass.

 

massonix sucked.

 

rob hall played too much.

 

doors opened at 9, autechre went on at 12:45 (W.T.F?!)

 

autechre played probably less than an hour, and then no encore

 

didnt meet any watmmers... place was too crowded and dark, and I was too sick feeling to make an effort to go watmmer hunting.

 

sorrys guys...

[Guest Rook]

I'm excited to hear them. A little disappointed that SND didn't jump the lake with them though.

[mononomo]

12:45 jesus, guess I would have been stuck in the city even if I had seen them

[lumpenprol]

Got to meet Robbie (Ghostbusters III), his girlfriend, and two of his friends at the show. Didn't see kcinsu or any other wattmers. I basically agree with kcinsu's breakdown, though I was a bit less enamored with Ae. Having seen them on the Confield tour, and having listened to the live stuff from Untilted, I was expecting something a bit more cerebral and/or song-based - it was basically a pretty straightforward bass assault for 50 min with just little shreds of bleeps and bloops over the top. I'd be curious to hear a recording if it emerges to see how my impression matches up.

 

On the Confield tour Sean and Rob made themselves accessible before the show, greeting fans and even smoking up with them, it had a more intimate vibe, and the lights from their laptops at least let you see their faces a bit during the performance. The Mezzanine is much more commercial venue, it was pitch black so you really couldn't see anything onstage, and the crowd had more "we want to mosh" types.

 

Not bad but my attention was wandering towards the end and I was ready to go home.

[goonstock]

that shit was amazing

 

yeah way too dark to see anything or anyone

i thought massonix was pretty dope

and autchre kicked my ass

i hope gb3 snuck in his recorder

[lumpenprol]

i hope gb3 snuck in his recorder

 

no, he didn't, unfortunately...:(

[Guest Enter a new display name]

I keep reading bad comments about the lighting. So their concerts are really dark? I have always thought it was due to cheap cameras (according to YouTube videos).

[Guest acridavid]

I keep reading bad comments about the lighting. So their concerts are really dark? I have always thought it was due to cheap cameras (according to YouTube videos).

 

All the club lights are off, except for emergency exit signs and sometimes the bar. In Amsterdam there was a warning poster saying

 

THE AUTECHRE SHOW

WILL BE IN COMPLETE

DARKNESSSS

 

which made me laugh.

 

I think it's great. Sound assault.

[eh Speedy]

Got to meet Robbie (Ghostbusters III), his girlfriend, and two of his friends at the show. Didn't see kcinsu or any other wattmers. I basically agree with kcinsu's breakdown, though I was a bit less enamored with Ae. Having seen them on the Confield tour, and having listened to the live stuff from Untilted, I was expecting something a bit more cerebral and/or song-based - it was basically a pretty straightforward bass assault for 50 min with just little shreds of bleeps and bloops over the top. I'd be curious to hear a recording if it emerges to see how my impression matches up.

 

On the Confield tour Sean and Rob made themselves accessible before the show, greeting fans and even smoking up with them, it had a more intimate vibe, and the lights from their laptops at least let you see their faces a bit during the performance. The Mezzanine is much more commercial venue, it was pitch black so you really couldn't see anything onstage, and the crowd had more "we want to mosh" types.

 

Not bad but my attention was wandering towards the end and I was ready to go home.

 

i'm w/ you dude. i think i just don't get it or care anymore or both. some of the monomachine or machinedrum (or whatever the fuck it is up there) sounds are cool and stuff but i was less impressed. i mean i couldn't tell you what the difference was between now and the last two times i saw them. and the massive bass, i'm over it. seems to me like they were usually so much better at holding off on that then the opening acts were.

[lumpenprol]

i think i just don't get it or care anymore or both..

 

yeah, pretty much sums it up for me too. Musically speaking, I have fond memories of the Confield tour because it was very "wtf?" It was like a stew of crazy sounds and periodically a really sweet melodic element would emerge from the murk and get carried along for a while, and then dissipate into chaos again. Apart from a few guys who stubbornly tried to dance epileptically, everyone else was just standing around, some ended up lying on the floor, just soaking up the experience. It wasn't emotionally gripping or anything, but I think it was more challenging and weird. This time was much more of a typical concert; it was more packed, the crowd was more "hip," and musically it was all "bass bass bass bassssss." Apart from that new track they've been playing (the sort of simplistic one everyone loves), the crazy little IO synth line repeated ad nauseum, and one other new-sounding bit, nothing really stood out for me. Also, call me elitist or a killjoy, but people shouting "wooooh yeah!!! you rock!!!" or whatever they were screaming just doesn't seem right at an Ae gig. I want evil, chattering, schizophrenic robot music, but I felt this was a bit too mainstream.

 

I did get to watch Ghostbusters III headbanging enthusiastically almost the whole time, though, which was a plus!

[awepittance]

autechre kicked ass.

 

massonix sucked.

 

rob hall played too much.

 

doors opened at 9, autechre went on at 12:45 (W.T.F?!)

 

autechre played probably less than an hour, and then no encore

 

didnt meet any watmmers... place was too crowded and dark, and I was too sick feeling to make an effort to go watmmer hunting.

 

sorrys guys...

 

yeah, i liked rob halls middle set the best the one with the afx track. Also did you guys notice that insane bearded guy in the suit jacket who was getting in everyone's faces? im sure Lumpenprol noticed him, he seemed really fucked up on coke or something.

 

i have to say i thought Autechre's set was absolutely amazing musically. I didn't mind the pitch blackness as much this time for some reason, maybe the small amount of dxm i was on gave me better night vision. The bass tones autechre produced were so devastating i dont think ive heard anything similarly hardcore even at a huge rock venue. I was certain i'd have hearing damage after leaving the show, but i think it was more just the frequencies they were using not the overall DB. The bass drums AE used seemed to correspond to different parts of my body like my eyeballs, skull and ribcage. It was a very tactile show.

goddam i wish i had a sound board recording of this show, i feel stupid because i could have easily brought my recorder in but probably at the expense of my own enjoyment of the show (because i couldnt help but flail my body). Nice to meet you Lumpenprol, and for Kcinsu well see eachother eventually at a show, the electronic music scene here is so fucking small .

 

I agree with most of the criticisms of the show here, but i think the mainstream heavy dancefloor sound they were going for was quite welcomed. I could hear bits of a lot of the songs off Quaristice but turned into massively infectious techno songs. The confield tour was amazing as well (from what ive heard, never actually saw it ) but i kind of like how autechre is trying to go for a weird edge but mostly rooted in traditional dance music sound.

[lumpenprol]

Nice to meet you Lumpenprol, and for Kcinsu well see eachother eventually at a show, the electronic music scene here is so fucking small .

 

I agree with most of the criticisms of the show here, but i think the mainstream heavy dancefloor sound they were going for was quite welcomed. I could hear bits of a lot of the songs off Quaristice but turned into massively infectious techno songs. The confield tour was amazing as well (from what ive heard, never actually saw it ) but i kind of like how autechre is trying to go for a weird edge but mostly rooted in traditional dance music sound.

 

Nice to meet you too :) That nutter who was getting in everyone's face was annoying, he kept trying to tell anyone who'd listen about how "that tall dude said he had a knife and was gonna stab me!!"

 

The bass in Mezzanine can be uncomfortably strong - you actually feel like your frontal lobes are wobbling against the inside of your skull, which they probably are. I saw Squarepusher there back in the day and had to leave early because it was starting to make me feel ill. It's probably great if you have kidney stones!

 

Yeah, listening to the LA show recording in full, there were probably a lot of details from the SF show I couldn't appreciate due to the bass. I did feel they were doing more things live this time, which is probably a credit to them technically. Last time they were hidden behind macs, but this time it seemed they were much more active with their hardware (I wasn't close enough to see clearly).

[digit]

can't speak for anyone else but there was no pat down when i entered. and some retard was wandering around the show wearing this huge backpack. someone could have snuck in a huge professional sound recording rig & no one would have noticed.

 

show was pretty good but not great imo. most of the difficulties i had getting into it were do to the crowd. place was packed. lots of people dancing & moving from place to place constantly bumping into you, etc. the only way i could get into the show was with my eyes closed. their stuff is so complex you really need to have all of your attention focused on the sound in order to grasp what they're doing.

 

got tired of the constant dance beat assaults. their show would have benefited greatly from some space. i was waiting for a little bit of some of the more ambient stuff like on quaristice but it was just wall to wall machinedrum. some of the material fell a little flat for me.

 

having said that, 3 parts of the show were amazing for me. the beginning, the end (with the bass waves that literally rattle your teeth), and this one part in the middle. the middle part is hard to describe. it had this really epic sounding melody and this very prominent squiggly trebly synth bit that kept reoccuring over the top as the track built up, a little different each time. it sounded like some big machine coming to life trying to speak. i'd kill to have a good recording of that.

 

someone in the us plz get a soundboard of this tour!

[goonstock]

i was like right next to that dude w/ a suit

 

he was freestylin

 

and asking me why nobody seemed into rob hall

[kcinsu]

haha, why?

[kcinsu]

hey, thanks man!

[Guest comma]

i thought this was one of the best electronic shows i have ever been to. the evolution from the last tour was satisfying... it seemed more unhinged and raw, or "live". their control over the gear seems to have grown.

 

i am honestly blown away by how much i have heard about people saying they've lost it, fallen off, gotten boring or whatever. i cannot relate to that in any way. this was one of the most bizarre, original, and brain-smashing shows i have ever seen.

 

my only complaint is how subdued and bored the crowd was acting, during this complete onslaught of bass and beats mania. i saw their last tour in london, and all 2,000 people there were dancing like it was the last day on earth. i guess here in san francisco it's not actually cool to show emotion. or maybe you're not supposed to actually dance to music that is "intelligent". whoever said that cheering from the audience was out of place... i don't get it- are you actually supposed to go to a performance of that magnitude and not interact? that's pretty boring.

 

and i'm not talking about suit-guy. that guy actually did need to be stabbed.

[goonstock]

haha

its too funny how many people saw that dood