[ASTRO] Portland 1998.07.01 Astro-Clone Review

[Michael Kepler <kepler@metro1.com>]

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Just a brief review of Astro-Clones@PDX 7/1/1998.
(Ok, now that I've re-read it, it isn't so brief after all, sorry.)

Arrivied a little over an hour early.  Asked to see The Brannock
Device and he OK'd me for a press pass, thus allowing my video
camera in.   My strategy this time was to shoot from the balcony,
in the vicinity of the projectors, rather than lose another video
camera to the mosh pit.  Major thanks to TBD for getting me the
pass and for being such a nice and hardworking slave to all things
ASTRO.  He was actually repairing guitar electronics while he
was selling merchandise!

Bought my merch early before the show.  The new MOA? single and
some stickers.  SOLD OUT of Genome-Packs!  Big ass disappointment
there.  Also sold out of Estrus records Comp w/MOA? and Servotron
songs not found elsewhere.  Met up with my Astro-friend Ben Brinkman,
who gave me some totally awesome BW photos of last year's Halloween
MOA? show.  I'm going to see if he'll let me put them up on my
web site.

First band was "Firewater".  Pretty darned good.  Kind of a rockabilly
kind of thing.  Totally had me ready to be a fan until the last song,
which was an "anti-gospel" song dedicated to "the man downstairs".  
I understand this was probably more a joke than anything else, but I just
don't have much of a sense of humor about "the man downstairs".  
I expect a lot of flak from other listees about this, but please do
everyone a favor and forget it.  This is just me talking about me.
I'm not telling anyone else what to think, _really_.

The Astro-Clones were the second opener for headliner "The Jesus Lizard".
Lemme see if there is anything I can report about this show that is more
than re-iteration of other reviews that have been posted.  The setlist
was a little different, although I'll have to review the video to come
up with a complete list.

The "transmissions" from ASTRO-HQ were cool.  I think they were trying to
simulate low-bandwidth digital video transmission, and the net effect was
very reminiscent of Max Headroom.  The Clones were being rebellious children
and talking back to the transmissions in ways probably not originally
intended, plus hurtling debris at the dish on which the transmissions were
projected.

The sound was kind of crappy, unfortunately.  Crappy sound plus a generally
more punkish playing style resulted in some songs sounding like undifferentiated
noise.  During some songs it was difficult to even identify what song it was
supposed to be.  This is _not_ a criticism of the clones themselves.
Their playing was ASTRO-like enough to satisfy ASTRO-fans, but different
enough to be new and exciting.  That is a fine line to walk and they walked
it very well.

The song they nailed the best was "The Miracle of Genuine Pyrex", which has
been one of the best live songs of recent tours for the "real" MOA? as
well.

As a video shoot, it was mixed.  The start of the show kind of snuck up
on me before I could ask the Astro-Projectionist if I could shoot from
inside his roped-off area.  All of the other positions at the rail of
the balcony were taken, so I started out shooting from behind the projector
stands.  There were problems with obstructions like wires hanging from
the projectors and other people leaning their heads into my shot.  About
three songs or so into the set I got brave and just stepped right over
the row of chairs barracading the back of the projector area.  A couple
of songs after that I went ahead and snuck right up to the rail in front
of the projectors.  From that point on the video looks great because
I had no more obstructions and had the railing to help me keep the
shot steady.  Next time MOA? or Clones come to LaLuna I'm going to make
sure I'm in this spot from the start.  I had to crouch to keep my
head out of the way of the projectors, however, so my old-man back
was killing me by the end of the set.

Sorry Lizard fans, but I didn't stay to hear the headliner.  It would
have been good to take advantage of the opportunity to hear another bandthat is new to me, but I was unfortunately really tired.

Bottom line: a successful experiment and a good show.  Bottom-bottom line:
I would choose Clones over no Astro-show at all, but I would choose the
real MOA? over the Clones.  MOA? could kick their Clones asses, but the
Clones still rock better than any Non-Astro Non-Servo band.

Rumor mill: this may have been mentioned on the list already, but I heard
some talk of the Beta and Gamma clone batches touring soon.  Rumor further
has it that each batch will specialize it reproducing successively older
MOA? setlists.  Coolest of all, Gamma batch might be an all-girl squad
playing tracks from "Is it..." and "Destroy..." that haven't been heard
live for a long time now.  I really hope these rumors are true.
No word on when MOA? will tour again, but they really deserve a break
and they are actually putting a lot of work into this clone thing
anyway.  These rumors did NOT originate with TBD.

I'll try to get a page up about this show on my Astrofan site ASAP, including
snaps from the video.  I'll also try to put up something about the most
recent Servotron show as well.

Mookie


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