Video - Live @ Trash Cult 21/4/23

Here's a high quality upload of the set I played at Trash Cult earlier in April, as posted on instagram. Might eventually upload to YouTube, but I have enough terrible sets (usually ones with the computer crapping itself on stage or me simply not practicing) on there already.

As the instagram put it:

"This is what happens when you have ADHD, gear issues (I am playing through amps, not a PA, which were so distorted they sounded nothing like what they sound like on laptop), drink a bottle of sambuca (black), do no vocal warmups and dress like a fucking 🤡 in regional Victoria.

Looking forward to finding out which piece of expensive gear I broke when I get home tomorrow!"

The story behind it was that I found out the venue only had a mono PA system, despite checking beforehand if it was stereo. This was fairly unacceptable as I rely upon a lot of hard panning (for example in the cut-up noise) and other stereo tricks on my Ableton setup, and generally if the sound system is low quality I prefer to bring a more analogue setup (i.e. the setup on the picture of me in a seifuku after my table had collapsed on the floor) to suit the setup. I was upset and had been drinking a little (a lot) as I had come down with a lot of gear (most of which I did not use) and exhausted myself walking it down to the v-line train (for non-victorians, a deisel train that run throughout rural victoria) and to an airbnb.

And I was headlining.

So, I decided to put my laptop gear through two cabs which I somehow managed to get the same volume: as loud as possible. It turns out guitar amps run very hot, and add a lot of gain and distort everything as if it were a heavy metal guitar. This meant ambience was out of the picture and all the planning I had done for the set (and every set I do is unique) was worthless.

So it sounds like a standard noise set, not an Uboa set. Even the mic on minimum fed back like crazy because of the extremely high gain. It was just a wall of noise.

It was fun. However I couldn't stand playing for more than about 3 minutes and was so pissed off (and pissed) I risked destroying my gear pushing over the table. Luckily the expensive stuff survived, but a few USB cables were snapped.

It was fun, but I'd really have preferred to have played a more 'normal' set. Some in the audience were confused (maybe disappointed) that I played a fairly standard noise set and was headlining after several very serviceable doom acts.

As with the dudes who were mocking me and girlfriend walking past, I didn't even noticed them until my girlfriend told me they were snickering at us. It might of been transphobia, but it might be because I dressed very silly for a rural area. It was funny, but I can't say I felt safe there.

But it makes a fun video. "enjoy" lol

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Thanks to the wonderful Lulu (Serene Ailment) for capturing the set and driving all the way from Naarm to see the gig. She does a lot of documenting the local weird death industrial-y emo transsexual noise scene here in Naarm (including putting the details of all our releases on Discogs) which is invaluable. Check out her work, as we might be collaborating in the future.