I had an MRI on my knee this week. If you’ve never had one, it is a very noisy procedure. Clicks and raps and something that sounds like a muffled jackhammer assault your ears for fifteen to twenty minutes or more, while medical technologists create an image of your chosen body part. While not painful, it is an ordeal.
You’re probably asking, “What does this have to do with a music festival?” The fact is, the MRI reminded me of certain acts at the festival. There were more than a few noise acts, maybe as high as thirty per cent of the total. Frankly, the MRI was more interesting than some of them.
But this is getting ahead of the story. Avant Garde a Clue was a week-long festival of experimental music, as the title says. Over two hundred acts – all in one venue – and all free.
How did the organizers pull that off? Certain logistics enabled the scope. First, the venue was an old church (which did hold services on Sunday); that turned out to be ideal. Most of the acts performed in the sanctuary, which had a large, multi-level stage. Acts set up their equipment while the previous performer was still playing, so there was a rapid turnover. Most acts only played 15 – 20 minutes. In this way, they were able to squeeze a lot of music into a short time.
There was a second room upstairs – more a conference room – with a large stage and rows of chairs, where the headlining acts performed. Those musicians who needed more time to set up and do sound checks could do those while others were playing downstairs.
The sanctuary made for a fitting atmosphere. There was a large, gold pipe organ behind the stage (don’t know if anyone played it), which glowed while it reflected the light show. The light show was mostly moving, brightly colored abstract images, projected across the stage, the performers, and the organ. So the events felt mystical, mysterious, suffused in hallowed energy, as they should.
There was a clearly stated policy that, once the venue was full, it was one out/one in. So people were prepared to get there early and wait for the most popular acts – although I never saw the venue close to full.
As for how they paid for it, I haven’t got a clue.
That aspect is particularly surprising, considering the headliners. At the top was the current incarnation of a prog classic band, Gong. Also on the line-up were Roger Clark Miller (Mission of Burma, not “King of the Road”), guitarist Mike Bagetta, and alt-rock supergroup Doom Dogs.
At this point I have to admit I only attended a fraction of the festival. Enough to get a sense of it, but nowhere near enough to take in its totality. The night that Gong played, I saw a notice that they were nearing capacity at 5:30 pm; Gong was scheduled for 9 pm. I decided to not even bother trying. I wanted to see Roger Miller, but I misread the schedule — I thought he was playing at 4 pm, but it really wasn’t until 11:30 pm. Plus, when I got there at 4 pm, everything had been pushed back two hours anyway. I went home.
On Thursday I got there at a good time — 6:30 pm — planning to catch several hours. Then I got distracted by a dazzling display of the Northern Lights over Lake Ontario, a couple of blocks away. Only caught about half an hour of music that night. But… experimental music, the Northern Lights, and a comet to boot. A perfect night.
In the end, I saw maybe six hours of music in total. What did I hear?
As I said, I heard a lot of noise, some of which I found interesting, much of it not. If you’re going to play noise, make it develop. Too many of the acts I heard played one noise over and over. Let me take the example of Scott Bazar, one of the “headliners” or at least one of the acts which played the main stage. I am picking on him because of that status, and because he was one of the few artists whose name I caught — it was brightly emblazoned over the stage.
Bazar had an electric guitar flat on the stage, and a variety of toys and tools around him, which he would place on the guitar to produce various noises. Except everything he placed on the guitar produced basically the same sound. It was interesting for five minutes, but not fifteen. Besides, I saw Nels Cline do something very similar, better, twenty-five years ago.
I dd hear a lot of interesting music. Unluckily, I didn’t catch the names of most of the artists. Yes, there was a schedule posted online, but that would have required a lot of toggling back and forth while trying to pay attention to the music. Besides, it wasn’t always accurate, as artists arrived late, or had trouble setting up their equipment, or jumped the line for one reason or another. So for the most part, I had no idea who I was hearing. (Yes, I can be a terrible reporter.) So I can only describe the highlights — a hard bop quartet, a funk band, a trio which reminded me of Gang of Four.
There were a couple of acts I caught the names of, or was able to look up successfully. One was cellist Aliya Ultan. She put on a frenzied performance, nearly violent, scratching at her cello with unrestrained emotion. It was dedicated to her family’s homeland. I didn’t catch where that was, but it didn’t matter, it could have been any of a number of war-scarred nations.
Then there were Doom Dogs, my priority act of the week. Reeves Gabrels on guitar, Jair-Rohm Parker Wells on bass, and Jonathan Kane on drums, an alt-rock supergroup, playing an intense jam. My impression was they were improvising with a certain song format, but it could have been pure improv. In any event, they played a little over an hour, and played a total of three pieces. All instrumental, all insanely intense, and unlike the artists I just commented on, each piece moved, developed, went somewhere.
Just the fraction I saw of this festival was astounding. Maybe next year (they have already announced there will be another festival next year), I can attend more and be overwhelmed.
PS: The MRI revealed an entire page of issues with my knee. But that’s a story for another day. [G. Murray Thomas]
Artist:
https://www.75stutson.com/upcoming-shows-concerts/avant-garde-a-clue-festival
https://www.facebook.com/events/75-stutson-street/avant-garde-a-clue/877747063971473
https://rochesterartistcollaborative.squarespace.com/artevents/avant-garde-a-clue