As I walk in, GFR are already playing. Or maybe not. I'm hearing a tape drone reminiscent of Spiritualized "Symphony Space", and a few random blips and bursts of static. A few minutes later, they take things up a notch by graduating to the sound of cables being plugged and unplugged from ungrounded amplifiers. As they finally move toward denser, scraping noise, dryly introducing the songs through a distorted mic as they go, I think to myself: it would be cool to play in an improv group and before each "song", somebody calls out a mood (e.g. "this is our happy song", or "this is a song about feeling hungry") and the ensemble has to immediately react and play in a manner that evokes that mood. I'm sure that somebody has thought of this already.
Wolf Eyes are considerably more interesting. First off, you've got to appreciate a band that builds almost all of their instruments, with the total cost of said instruments being exceeded by the cost of gas required to drive to each city to play the gig. These toys look fragile but are probably built like tanks considering how much they are hauled around. Besides, if anything was so difficult to replace then they'd probably refrain from dripping sweat all over their electronic gadgetry.
Second, they're a black metal band that's posing as a noise band. This is 1000% A-OK by me. They might start out playing electroacoustic improv using gongs, miked cymbals, and amplifying the sound of rubbing steel poles against thin steel (a terrifying combination of metal on metal), but that gives way to thudding synthetic beats during which the band menbers toss their bodies into their instruments. After the screaming and hyper-aggressive guitar playing is over, they find a little more in the tank and proceed down the pitch-dark industrial drone path of Brighter Death Now. One cannot get enough of Brighter Death Now.
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