Polvo/Trans Am @ Neumo's: The New Chapel Hill Rock?

I was worried - I really was.

A couple of months back, I heard about Polvo reforming for All Tomorrow's Parties, I wondered if their discordant sounds would turn to mush since their hiatus in 1997. Could they keep it together and tight while maintaining their eclectic messy nature that gave them their signature?

Apparently, they did, because they're now on tour and passed through Seattle last night with avant guard hard-rockers Trans Am - and let me tell you, it was alright.

And it was tight.

When Hipsters (Don't) Attack

Entering Neumo's on what I thought was the last part of Trans Am's set, I was immediately reminded of the Cat's Cradle, which is the highest compliment someone from Chapel Hill can give another venue. When I first moved to Seattle, I went to Neumo's to check out some of my favorites and was surprised to find it more scene than substance - hipsters crowding the small room so they could tell their friends about how awesome the show last night was.

I don't know if it was because the members of the bands are older than the average age in Capitol HIll or if it's some Southeast Rock Magic^tm, but there was definite vibe to rock out here - no poseurdom or pretense in the people I talked to. Refreshing!

Trans Am!

Sebastian Thomson of Trans Am

Since Nathan Means was thanking the crowd for coming out, having a good time, and being awesome, I thought it was the last song of Trans Am's set - and then they played seven more songs. And thanked the crowd between each one - classy guys.

Trans Am is always a high-energy show - Thomson on the skins hits hard and fast, with the bass lines backing a steadiness that is normally found in the drums. Meanwhile, the drums are all over the place, as if someone had put Animal in a New Wave band. They played about six more songs, including some new stuff, and...

...then...

Polvo

What can I say? Growing up in Chapel Hill at the height of the indie rock scene there was golden groove about the music that has never been duplicated anywhere else I have ever lived. Polvo, as a precursor and progenitor to today's math rock, has steady rhythms and vibe based around discordant guitars and a wandering bass line, with the drums providing punctuation to the rambling dialogue.


They did not disappoint - although the bad hasn't played a tour in ten years, the music sounded exactly as it did in 1994 and the stage presence was heady and real. Appropriately standoffish and absorbed in the music, the crowd ate it up, digested it, and spat it out as a head-bobbing mass of subliminal understanding.

They played one new song, which means I'm keen on seeing what's next for the band - a new album? Single? A line of specialty post-grunge math rock breakfast cereals? Bring it on!

Burning Man 2008

Earlier this week, I returned from Burning Man- dusty, sunburned, dehydrated, and smiling wryly. Originally, I had planned on writing up a long-form summary of everything that happened. When I hit five pages, I decided to back off and bullet-point this sucker. Here goes:

• Sunday, Derek and I drove from Seattle to Klamath Falls. On our way, we are the third car waiting behind a head on collision on OR-58, which would claim the lives of two women involved. For me, Burning Man isn't just about Black Rock City, but the journey as well - and this would be the start of a bittersweet jouney for me.
• Monday, we arrive in Black Rock, make it through the ticket-takers gate, only to wait white-out conditions for five hours. After the second hour, people (including me) started to get out of their vehicles and we were wandering around and drinking warm beer in the storm.
  
• They close down the city and then let in anyone past the gates. We make it to Entheon Village, check in, and am told to "camp across the street" - where there is no room. I check with a few people, no one really knows what is going on, so I find a place to camp where I can walk to Entheon.
• By Tuesday, everything has calmed down, so I check into Entheon again. There's no shower, no bathrooms, and they're only half-staffed for their shifts. However, no one I talk to is actually in charge of anything and doesn't know anyone who should be in charge. This would be repeated throughout the week and the theme of camp is turned from spirituality to disorganization.
• Also, on Tuesday, I'm biking around, getting a lay of the land, and I run into Tan^2, a camp from Seattle and Austin made up of some Microsoft, Sun, and miscellaneous technical types.
  
• Wes and Adam show up, and to my surprise, manage to find me amongst the throngs of burners. They also comment on how disorganized Entheon is and how they don't know what is going on.
• Wednesday is my work shift in Entheon and I start to see why they are disorganized - they have some really good people managing the kitchen,but everyone who is helping is a little too slow and not self-motivated enough to get the work done. It's as if they're trying to be cooler than each other and not displaying enough radical self-reliance and motivation in getting food prepared for 600 people. I work for three hours on various tasks, and the managing crew comment on "how good you are" - and I thought I was being slow...
• After lunch, I head out for PAT - Playa Art Time - and explore the different structures.
• Later that night, one of the fine friends from Tan^2 and I head out and do more Playa art - just her and I. She had heard about my time with Entheon and took pity on me and decided I needed time away from the hippies before there was blood on the Playa. We ended up having a lot of great conversations and she took me to places and introduced me to people that renewed me and brought me back into focus.
• Thursday technicaly started late, since I was out until dawn. This was going to be my "class day", where I got to different lectures at different camps. Instead, it ended up being drunkenly-wander-in-the-sun day, so I met a lot of people at bars and camps,including one man who did perfect voices for 21 and 24
• Friday, we finally met our neighbors, Marcella and Kevin, who would end of being extremely awesome the rest of the weekend. We sat around that afternoon thinking of art project for next year, including the "Cockmobile" - a fried chicken truck that ran on biodeisel that was refined from the chicken we fried. They would also be excellent hosts they had an RV and on...
  
• ...Saturday it was hot and a dust storm hit about 2PM that lasted well through the night. At 8PM it let up and the decided to go forward with Burning the Man. It felt a little hurried - no parades and no fuss.
• Sunday, Adam and I drove back north and made it as far as Eugene before we called it a night. Ate BBQ at a place that was closing the next day and got out first real showers in a week.

This year was a little bittersweet for me - I don't know if it was the disorganization of Entheon, the wreck on the way in, or if I was spoiled from the awesome time I had in 2007, but something felt off - I was having a good time and it wasn't mind-blowing.

Something about this year told me that the burn is more than just being there - it's about carrying an idea forward, to be creative and wonderful no matter the environment. If you aren't doing that, then you're just a spectator, someone who is trying to be cool for just one moment - and probably trying too hard, too much, and that's just too bad.

Peace.