Bitchin' Bajas / Man Forever : Chicago : June 12, 2012

[TheWarmth]

I went to The Burlington last night to see Cooper Crain's (CAVE) side project, Bitchin' Bajas. Also on the bill were Kid Million's (Oneida) experimental drum freakout side project, Man Forever. It was my first time at The Burlington, which turned out to be a small dive bar with a nice vibe and a good selection of craft beer on tap and in bottles. The live room (capacity of approximately 100) is almost creepy in its barrenness. It was dimly lit and mostly black. Cooper and his cohort in B.B., Dan (never caught his last name), performed in near darkness with one guitar (through two 1/4" tape machines to create a beautiful tape delay), a vintage Ace Tone organ (same one used with CAVE), two synths and a laptop. The duo performed three songs, each approximately 10 minutes in length. The first featured the aforementioned tape delay guitar and was an ambient wash with no rhythm. Track two featured a nice heavy, programmed drum beat that I was certainly not expecting and entertwining organ and synth. Really amazing. LOVED this one. I need to ask Cooper if they've recorded it. The third track was mostly ambient organ/synth, but near the end the synth burbled and bleeped into a great pulsing rhythm with a massive bass tone rumbling throughout. Overall, I thought the set was excellent and really dug it. I just got their most recent LP, Vibraphonic, but have not had a chance to listen and am now looking forward to it even more.

There was a second band on the bill, Brokeback, but I only watched a few minutes of their set and can't really comment on them.

Man Forever closed the evening. I had no idea what to expect, having only read one review of the album. The first song featured Cooper on organ, one of the members of Brokeback on bass, one of the guys from Plastic Crimewave Sound on guitar and Kid Millions and another dude, each on a floor tom. K.M. and his buddy locked into a hypnotic beat on their toms, which had to have gone on for ten minutes or so before the rest of the band kicked in with a massive and impressive drone. I really dug this. Pretty amazing stuff. For the second track, it seemed like about half of the audience members jumped on stage to join in on more floor toms, playing a fairly similar beat to that of the first song. This went on for ten minutes or so and by that time I started losing patience and was getting extremely tired, so I went home. I'm sure that all of the Man Forever sets are mostly improvised and incorporate friends of K.M. in each city they visit. I have to say that I enjoyed B.B. more than Man Forever, but it was an interesting spectacle, without question.

[shalloboi]

i've only been there once and it was for a show that my band was playing. they let us play really fucking loud and i was pretty happy with the overall sound there. it is kind of an odd room for shows- while we were loading in we noticed chain links coming out of the floor in several places. i suppose it used to be a stable? or maybe something else...
i saw bitchin' bajas open for ty segall- they set up on the floor and it was very enjoyable. i usually get a little wary of seeing two people set up a pile of synths, but they played some really cool pulsing, layered drones. some of it got surprisingly loud.

[TheWarmth]

Yeah, the B.B. set started out kinda quiet and minimal, but they conjured up a pretty huge sound by the time they got to the second song. I might try to book SS at the Burlington. It's a weird venue, but they're getting some cool acts there and I thought the sound was good.