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Black Moth
Super Rainbow,
Blank Dogs, and Dan Friel
Seaport
July 24, 2009
Written by Joshua Williams
Photographed by Amy Davidson
Opposite: Black Moth
Super Rainbow
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Let’s get straight to it. This was the seaport’s
most adventurous offering yet. They did not play
it safe, and they should be rewarded and commended
for it. I’m talking about putting on a show
with Dan Friel, Blank Dogs, and Black Moth Super
Rainbow.
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Dan Friel
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Dan Friel |
Dan Friel’s engages in experimental synth
pop. Like a mad audio scientist, he uses a keyboard
and runs them through numerous outboard effects
and stompboxes. Constantly bopping his head throughout
his performance, the compositions run from simple
pop to extreme noise. One complaint is that it seemed
levels were set a bit too high. That’s more
of a fault of the soundboard then the artist however.
And well, he’s better to listen to than to
watch. It gets a little boring watching a guy sit
in a chair for a half an hour.
Next was Blank Dogs. Comprised of a regular four-piece
combo with the addition of synth and sax players,
the dogs are definitely influenced by lo-fi and
no-wave movements as well as early death rock stuff.
There’s also a blues surf element, a la The
Horrors, in there somewhere. My problem with this
band was they were drowning themselves in modulation.
It was to the point of indecipherability as it pertained
to the singer. I always understood lo-fi as more
of an attitude than a movement. You don’t
need fancy gear to make a compelling recording.
But going out of your way to make your live sound
indecipherable takes away from the positive elements
of your set. You can run hot and raw on stage and
not have that polished sound. Drowning it with ring
mods, phasers and delay turned good songs into music
jello.
Black Moth Super Rainbow
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Black Moth Super Rainbow
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Black Moth Super Rainbow |
And then the treat of the evening. Black Moth
Super Rainbow. There’s no point in trying
to describe this. Look at the pics. I will say this
about them musically—their drummer is amazing.
By providing a solid foundation, the costumed “lead”
singer can pantomime the lyrics of the semi-obscured
“real” singer, and engage the crowd,
fling tortilla chips and pita bread and feed a banana
to the crowd. Added to the multiple synths and guitar,
it almost seems like it has a point. Maybe one day
I will figure out what that exactly is.
http://www.myspace.com/danfrieldanfriel
http://www.myspace.com/blankdogtime
http://www.myspace.com/blackmothsuperrainbow
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