The audience fluctuated between silent wonderment and full whistles and outbursts of hooting approval at the Hi-Dive on Monday. Photo from .
fans are kind of like dudes who are into cars or computers or video games; they are just as interested in what it takes to make a sound as the sound itself, constantly curious about the origin of each echoed instrumental howl and sawing, syrupy melody. At the ETE show Monday night at the, I watched audience members hoist themselves up to peek over the monitors as they gazed in awe of double-neck bassist/guitarist Kristian Dunn’s menagerie of pedals.
Dunn’s dream plank was lined with distortions and tremolos, multiple looping mechanisms and creators of vintage wah-wah sounds, no piece of equipment going un-touched during the duo’s excellent set for their very enthusiastic audience. Drummer Tim Fogarty had an equally impressive and curious drum kit, a mix of acoustic and electronic elements that created a full setap worth of consistently perfect time for Dunn’s shifting and intricate melodies to straddle, dodge and burrow deep within.
Each vocal-less song melted into the next, little perforations of sonic individuality popping through as Dunn manipulated the necks of his double bass/guitar at the same time. Often playing the melody and beat simultaneously on his monstrous two-headed instrument, the floored audience’s reaction fluctuated between silent wonderment and full whistles and outbursts of hooting approval.
Dunn traded the double bass/guitar or a fretless bass every so often, his technical ability shining brighter as the night wore on, fingers moving with lightning speed and grace up the neck as if he was searching for an undiscovered note. His bass channeled the sounds of a violin one moment and the jagged clarity of a human voice the next, each track more epic than the next.
El Ten Eleven’s take on the Radiohead classic “Paranoid Android” and the goof-off titled track “I Like Van Halen Because My Sister Says They Are Cool” came through among over a dozen songs the two pumped out like participators in some sort of instrumental technical-skill Olympics. A lengthy and welcomed encore brought Fogarty out from behind his kit and to his knees in front of Dunn, hitting his partner’s strings at the pick-ups with his drum sticks as Dunn’s fingers spread like wildfire along the neck.
The El Ten Eleven show Monday night was one of pleasant intensity, a lesson to every musician that, if you think you can play well, you’re probably wrong. Unless mastering melodies on a double-neck guitar/bass combo while real-time rhythm loops you’ve created play over a full drum kit and drum machine is easy for you.
Bree Davies plays bass in , writes about her obsessions with Iggy Pop and Lil’ Wayne in and repeatedly fakes her own death at . She is also a self-proclaimed addict.
