Gig Report: Portland LoopFest A-Go-Go

[dgoat <dgoat@quik.com>]

Greetings all!

Well, the very first Portland loopers gig has come and gone, and it was 
a mad success, far beyond what I had dreamed it would be. We had a great 
crowd (over 125!) and actually made some money to distribute to all of 
the people involved! We had ambience, noise, rock, jazz, funk, spoken 
word, experimental, folk, minimalism, etc. Basically, just about 
something of everything! Improvization seemed to be the common thread 
throughout. List members Neil Goldstein, Dave Trenkel and myself all 
performed along with several other local Portland loopers.

First up was Lecture, solo guitar and mic through a vintage tape 
echoplex (super-cool box!) into a vintage 4-10 tube amp. He generated 
beautiful/ugly lo-fi textures that were a perfect opening.

Next was Non-Polar, another solo artist, who used 2 JamMan's, a 
microphone and a mixer to create wonderful dark textures from a ride 
cymbal. Lots of bass frequencies. A unique way to play a cymbal. He also 
did some guitar fine looping.

Then Neil Goldstein took the stage with a Martin acoustic guitar, an EDP 
with Loop IV and a Vortex. He proceeded to demostrate his "stutter" loop 
technique, and other techniques that ranged from faux-California Guitar 
Trio sounds, to folk chord progressions, to squalls of noise.

My band, the Darsan Trio, played a fully (-1) improvised set, with 3 
DL4's used by the Guitar, Bass, and Drums/voice. We played giant dollops 
of rock/jazz/funk/noise and I improvised weird spoken word pieces 
throughout. We ended our set with a looped version of the Gymnopedie #1 
by Erik Satie. One person I talked to compared us to Massacre :-) Great 
fun!

My bassist colleque from the Divided (a pop band I'm in) then mesmerized 
us all as the Ascension Conspiracy with his ambient solo fretless bass 
skills, using a JamMan, ebow, and an old Art effects unit.

Last for the evening (and best) was Admiral Twinkle Devil (Dave Trenkel) 
and the Turntable Enabler. Dave had an absolutely HUGE assortment of 
devices that he ran an electric piano and Nomad keyboard through, 
including a Repeater and a JamMan. His turntable co-hort used a Repeater 
and other devices on the turntables, and definately played them as a 
musical instrument. VERY impressive. Now, not only did they have the 
mounds of gear (a full music store's worth it seemed) but they also 
brought an excellent sax player with them, who squalled and melodied his 
way through the textures with tenor and soprano saxes. A fine, fine 
closing act.

I'd like to again thank all the performers who played:

Lecture
Non-Polar
Neil Goldstein
my cohorts in the Darsan Trio
The Ascension Conspiracy
Admiral Twinkle Devil and the Turntable Enabler with special guest

I'd also like to thank:

The kind folks at the Jasmine Tree
Noah and Kate who helped me set up the show
Keith and Jaybird who handeled the PA board.

A special separate thanks to Kate as the Admin Goddess who helped me set 
up, and ran the door.

Jeremy of Lecture has kindly offered to set up the next show, and 
hopefully we will all be on our way to a monthly looping show!

Thanks!

D.G.
The Darsan Trio
The Divided