When the Sky is Full of 0’s and 1’s
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After m u l tip le rave reviews, Kirstie and I finally decided to go. The play was based on the film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and was done in a large “cabinet” with puppets. Calling it a “puppet play” though doesnt do it justice, the puppets were just as much alive as the people controling them. The puppeteers were dressed in dark greys and black so that they blended in with the back drop, but their faces were painted white showing off expressions that the puppets sometimes couldnt. They brought the characters to life, and with the help of the most erie and mutli-ethnic influenced music totally submerged me into the play. The play opened with a large horned victorla rolling out of one of the lower drawers of the cabinet, and a hand gently placing the needle on the record. This cued the voice over of a shaky voice and suddenly the 2 large doors in the middle open to reveal the main stage. From this point the play is an amazingly creative and mystical ride through a hauntingly imaginitive story. Its interesting that it was written so long ago but feels so modern. The movie the machinist seems to draw a bit of inspiration from this same theme. The theater presenting this play, redmoon is set way back from the street, an industrial deserted side street, with only a small sheet metal sign signifing you are at the correct place. Its seems like the small wierd places are the best places.

After leaving this we drove to wickerpark to do some record and book shopping. Ever since I heard of Creeley’s passing I have been on the search to find some books of his. Oddly, after parking the car we walk past the park (named wicker park, thus the name of the neighborhood) and catch the last few scenes of the heroes of wicker park, this weird music, art, play that was being performed in the park. I wished we had gotten there earlier so that we could have seen the whole thing becuase from what we saw it looked really neat. There was a small band of ppl on drums, guitar, sax, upright bass, and accordian playing music for the scene where these to actors with large paper masche masks/helment have an argument. After that the characters moved over to the side of the fountain where a group of boys/girls started playing and then dancing, waltzing right up to the fountain and skipping around it, pulling kids from the “audiance” into their cirlce. It was the second to last show of theirs. I hope they do more things like that throughout the summer, its what makes me like this city.

A school night show, but an early show so it didn�t hurt that bad. I left work early so that we could grab a quick bite to eat at a pizza/sandwhich shop on North Ave called Santillo�s. It was a warm spring day so the walk from the car to food was very nice and put us in a good mood to see animal collective. We got to the bottle about 20 minutes early, secured our seats on the steps, and peacefully enjoyed a beer while listening to the house music before Ariel Pink took the stage. This show was in combination with the version 05 festival that was going on around the city.

Both Ariel Pink and Animal Collective are on the same label so its not surprising that they have a similar sound. Ariel Pink are 5 guys who manage to make the music of cavemen. Very primitive, raw and special. They really didn�t have the hip and trendy analog gear, and appeared to have just woken up. The bass player used a short scale no name bass, there was no guitar just 2 vocalists who had delay boxes for their vocals and the keyboard was a cheap casio. Combined with the drums they made hauntingly savage noise. With all the delay on the vocals they were more like ghostly synths creating a haze which the bass and drums pummeled through and the casio weaved a simple melody over. I really enjoyed the set and thought they did a good job of taking me away from the roar of the sounds of the city and to a place millions of years ago.

Animal Collective was very impressive. This was the first time we saw them and didn�t know what to expect. The CD�s sound like there are tons of samples and so I was half expecting them to come out with laptops and boxes. Not the case, although there were a lot of rack-effect units on stage, all the music we heard was being created right in front of our eyes. On the floor was one member of the band who sat most of the show kind of live mixing and tweeking the instruments, adding delay and noises from various circuit bent toys. After about 3 songs a 4th person popped up from behind the drum, a floor tom, and started banging out some rhythms and chanting into a microphone. A couple of time during the set the guy on the floor picked up a snare and started dancing around the stage while hitting it. Where Ariel Pink had a more aggressive caveman sound, Animal Collective brought the feeling of a tribal ritual, a calling for rain for the harvest. Had I not liked the music so much I would have called the antics �hippie� but being that the whole set was more musical and less pure rhythmic fodder, it was something magical. No encore because they didn�t have any songs short enough and we all had to get out so that the late show could start.