10/4 Hassle Night Review featuring DAN’L BOONE, KTB, and PETE TOSS/FAT BOBBY DUO
by Aaron Bennett
It’s a rare night I attend a show without ensuring I’ll have at least one buddy to accompany me, but the almighty powers of Neil Haggerty drew me see his new act DAN’L BOONE, with dudes from Wolf Eyes and Drainolith. I made sure to show up early enough to catch the openers, KTB and PETE TOSS/FAT BOBBY DUO, whose pedigree is just as illustrious, featuring two members of Guerilla Toss in two different acts, joined by an Oneida-er and a Bugs and Rats-er. KTB was a drum machine, vocalist/drum whacker, and guitarist. The lone drum, maybe a tom, was beaten with menacing relentlessness, amidst claustrophobic guitar clang. I couldn’t understand any of the lyrics, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were about making sure debts were paid and the terrifying shit you’d find in the basement. Total creeps. Then the PETE TOSS/FAT BOBBY DUO took the stage and, with rolling organ lines and bursting, bubbling drums, lead us through a terrifying river of ecstasy, a journey from birth to death (with boring parts included). At times it was a muddy thromb, other times a cloud surf, generally turning prog moves into primordial churn. The DAN’L BOONE took over and the pungent weirdness of the night took a new, hard turn. The four elements of the band—two guitars (Neil H. doing his Howling Hex style, the other dude playing through a mic’d practice amp), mysterious electronics, and Nate Young’s processed vocals—came at you like quadrophonic nonsense, unyielding, until a higher sense of purpose was achieved. There was a slight USA-vibe, evoked by the band name, Neil Haggerty’s inescapable history/influences, and the other guitarist’s Tupac t-shirt. It was like the United States of America was flattened out, sliced down the middle. Aural tape spool spilled out like Tauntaun guts. Both electronic wizards were toying with loops and time slips in ways both unsettling and intoxicating. They played for five or six hours.
Aaron Bennett plays in the quite sick experimental electronics crew DEATH SHEPHERD.
Photos by Kevin Butwill
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