Indian Jewelry, Residual Echoes and Riververb at Scolari's Office
01.04.07 photos by Krista Nielsen and Keith Boyd, review by Eric Nielsen
The music started late and I had started drinking early. Riververb played first: a solo act full of noise and sonic rumblings. One guy with drums, a homemade bass looking thing attached to a barrel through some kind of foot pedal modulator. Keith said it looked like one of those old moog bass rigs. Nice mask (see pic below). I loved seeing the crowd for some straight up noise... thought it could've been louder, but the people were there, digging it. Seems like this town is cultivating some taste for the Japanese flavors finally.Residual Echoes played next. I was interested in seeing them as I'd heard of them for a coupla years now and they played with some good friends of mine, LSD March, in SF recently. They too had a good noise thing going though more straight ahead. They're a 3 piece with a real steady rhythm section and an interesting guitar sound/style played through a fender strat and a fender twin. The music was moving and kept me involved. Again, great sounds, good vibe. They reminded Keith of Sonic Youth and Black Flag. Overall they were fairly straight compared to the other 2 acts on the bill, but still crazy enough to fit the bill and keep my attention (unlike most plastic crap out there).
Finally Indian Jewelry after 1 am. So good, really. So different. The main sounds came out of a microkorg through some samplers and delays, guitar and a stand up drum kit with the bass drum on it's side on stands with the drummer standing. The vocals were heavily modified with delay and distortion. Every song had this wacky effect on the voice, it's definitely a big part of their sound. They played pieces from their new album, Invasive Exotics like Lesser Snake and Going South. The sound, vibe, strobe light, smoke machine, and twisted vocals ate into your late night brain with repetitive drums and extended pieces that made you move through the room out of your body. Krista said it reminded her of The Butthole Surfers. Erika killed the sounds on the microkorg and fashioned them into a heavy room filling rich warm haze. A very pleasant evening of music indeed. It took me away for a while. more pics of all the bands

Residual Echoes

Riververb