From: ghond@acca.nmsu.edu (ICE-9)
Subject: REVIEW:  Curve / Nitrous 013
Summary: too loud / rockin
Organization: New Mexico State University
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 08:42:20 GMT


Review:  Curve, Opera House, Toronto
	 Nitrous 013, Somewhere in Toronto
	 Sometime in May or June.  It's all a blur.

Well, this review has been ages in coming, but here it is.  (At this
rate, I'll finish reviewing the summer's raves about December or so :)

After releasing several excellent EP's and a most excellent album,
Curve finally decided to tour and visit Toronto. They played at the
Opera House which is, not surprisingly, a converted opera house. 
This means that, unfortunately, the acoustics are designed for an
non-amplified voice on stage to be heard throughout the hall, rather
than an amplified rock & roll band.  So they've gone through about 3
PA's, and many soundmen, trying to get a decent sound out of the
place for live shows.  The main problem is the concrete floors &
walls make the bass bounce around like hell.  The bass gets very muddy.
So they try to fix it by throwing MORE bass bins at it.  Etc, etc.

Anyway, on with the show.  Rail-TEC opened, who are a techno-guitar
band who happen to appear on a compilation with my band (I.C.E), called
Here Come the Sound Pirates (Intrepid/Capitol [plug plug]).  They
pulled off an okay set, given A) it was their first show, B) the
Opera House PA, and C) a typically apathetic Toronto audience. 
(Canadians generally don't believe in home-grown talent until it gets
recognized somewhere else first.)  Their lineup is basically
bass/guitar/guitar/vox with drum loops and samples provided by Mr.
DAT Machine.  Nice backing vocals.  Last tune was a technoid cover
of Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy", which I thought was kind of cheesy,
but did cause some grooving.  They need to practice more.

For about an hour, a very hissy and badly recorded mix tape was
played.  After a while, well waddya know, I hear this digeridoo
sound, set to a thoroughly ass-kicking techno beat.  Thanks to
Greg Earle and alt.rave, I instantly knew what it must be. :)  Despite
the bad recording, it certainly caught my attention.

Much fog filled the room, Curve emerged, strobe light flashing
constantly.  There was so much fog, in fact, that the lead singer
was just a vague shadow, and the rest of the band completely
invisible.  This, combined with their somewhat distant and
disconnected performance seemed to alienate them from the crowd.
A lot of the backing vocals were on tape, but I didn't mind.  It was
still beautiful.  I was also surprised at just how much drumming was
done live.

My main complaint:  They were *TOO LOUD*.  One of the loudest shows in
recent memory.  At the risk of sounding like an old fart (this status
is rarely bestowed upon 23-year-olds, at any rate), it was much
louder than it needed to be.  Obviously, the Opera House PA is
partially to blame, and rock & roll has to be at a certain volume in
order to sound good, but permanent damage is where this punter
draws the line.  As a musician very fond of his hearing, I object to
this kind of excess.  A small amount of high-end loss I can live
with, but as for tinnitus at 30, no thanks.  Also, leaving the guitars
on stage feeding back after the set was bad enough, they didn't need
to do it after the encore as well.

After the show ended, around 12:30, my friends suggested we check
out a rave called Nitrous 013.  My sister, being a rave virgin, was
understandably curious.  :)

After driving to the map point, getting some hasty directions, driving
around a bit, returning to the map point, getting some less hasty
directions, and driving around some more, we found it.  The entrance
was a parking garage, which was blocked by two large buses.  The only way
to see it from the road (other than the usual tell-tale hotdog
vendor :) was a small amount of light peeking out underneath the
buses, and shadows of feet moving about in the light.  We paid $10,
were frisked, and entered.

So there we were, standing in a parking garage, one single red laser
mournfully trying to do something interesting on the wall, a couple
of people milling about, and big mounds of what i thought was garbage
sitting in piles in the middle of the cement floor.  "Oh great", I'm
thinking, "I just dragged all these people here, we just paid $10
each and got completely burned."  Then someone noticed the little
arrows painted on the ground, and we followed them up some stairs,
around, music getting louder, up some more stairs, and, wow, there
it was.

The entire floor of an office building had been converted (perverted?)
into a very groovy place to be.  There was the usual green office carpet
everywhere, which made the place cosy (although warm), and the
fluorescent ceiling lamps had been ripped out and replaced with
black lights, lasers, and other colourful things.  In the central
area was a stage, a dance floor, a *very nice* PA (not too loud, and
crystal clear), two juice bars, some videos & clothing booths, and a
small table where they served alcohol after 3ish (alcohol at a rave
. ewww).  There were also booths where you could buy glowropes,
glowsticks and glowthingies for your mouth (!).  Along one wall, old
40's black & white movies were projected with wobbly psychedelic images
layered on top.  Another booth along the side sold ravewear
(from Rural Clothing, somewhere on Queen St.) and had a couple TV
screens up playing bits of Akira, Skinny Puppy videos, etc.  The video
stuff seemed out of synch with the atmosphere -- perhaps they could
use some of my fractal footage.  :)

One thing that piqued my curiousity was the stage.  2 unlimited were
supposed to play, but there was no equipment at all, save for a couple
of monitor wedges, and the only songs I had heard by them had no vocals.
Hmmm.  So what gives?  In the mean time, I chatted up DJ Iain, whom
I knew from the Lizard Lounge and other fine places.  He's a nice
guy, I like his stuff, and he played a better variety than I'd heard
at other raves.  I like it when a DJ can drop down the bpm's,
without losing your interest, throw in some slower, minimalist or
trance-like grooves only to pump it up again once you've regained
some of your energy.  I wouldn't mind even hearing Meat Beat
Manifesto or PE or Primal Scream or Curve once in a while.  Is there
some rave law that forces DJ's to play nothing but the most anonymous
white-label speedcore?  Don't get me wrong, I like brain-melting
hardcore, but i don't see the point in playing it for 8 hours solid when
there's so much other good stuff out there.  

Also checked out the chill-out room, and the 'Something For Your
Mind' room.  The chill-out room had an idea which you might want
to steal if you plan to throw a rave:  thousands upon thousands of
little bits of fabric, about 6 inches long, strewn all over the
floor in knee-deep piles, draped across the ceiling, etc.  (I then
figured out what the piles of 'garbage' I thought I had seen earlier
actually were).  So you could sprawl comfortably, sit up, have
fabricwars, etc.  Which we did, of course.  Not too expensive to do,
if you can find a sweatshop with some end-of-line material or
factory seconds or something.

The 'Something For Your Mind' room had a table selling Smart Drinks,
and a guy running 4 'Mind Machines'.  If you haven't seen these
before:  they're basically a pair of glasses, with 4 full-spectrum
fast-response incandescent bulbs in each lens, with a small computer
running the lights through a sequence of patterns and oscillations
which produces colourful images on the back of your retinas.  Some
of the programs are designed to induce alpha or beta waves, some are
for relaxation or stimulation.  You can either close your eyes, or
open them, or alternate.  My sister and I tried them; it was a very
good trip.  You'd think it would be too intense stimulation, but
it's actually quite relaxing.  (If you're interested, I can type in
some of the literature I got on them.)  The smart drinks seemed
pleasant enough, if bland.  Not chalky, and I made sure to get the
one with lots of Choline in it.  :)

2 Unlimited took the stage about 2:30, after a very baked Don Berns
and Chris Sheppard attempted to introduce them (Sheppard kept
saying, "I wanna send this out to Everybody, cos Everybody starts
with an 'E'").  So these two kids come out, and basically
sing and rap overtop of backing tapes playing remixed versions of
"Get Ready For This", "Twilight Zone" and "Workaholic".  They pumped
up the crowd a lot, and made clear their anti-drug stance (which
surprised me, for a band makes rave music).  Hmmm.  I enjoyed it a lot
even though I knew the music was canned, and that these 20-year-old
kids had nothing to do with its creation.

Heard "Injected with a Poison" a couple times, which I liked a lot
-- great piano break, neat mix of hard techno & house.  Also
got DJ Iain to play "Digeridoo" for me, decided I *had* to own it,
ended up buying it a few days later.  It was also nice that
I could be totally straight & sober, and still have a great time (not
that I can claim any higher moral ground on this, I'm just too broke
to indulge as much as I'd like :).  I was pumped to stay
till dawn, but my sister had to work the next day, so we cut out
around 3:30.  All in all, I'd say I enjoyed the rave far more than
the Curve show.  Mostly for the positive atmosphere; it's great to get
away from the 'wear-lots-of-black-and-sneer-down-your-nose-at-people'
crowd, even if I used to be one of said people :)  Also probably had
something to do with running into some good friends I hadn't seen
in ages.

Looking forward to Nitrous 014.  

-- sfw
-- 
stephen white			| the priests and the friars
ghond@sloth.nmsu.edu		| approach me in dread
				| because i still love you,
				| my love, and you're dead - s. o'connor
Xref: sparky alt.rave:2001 rec.music.industrial:8950 rec.music.cd:5660