Psychic Ills, Blues Control and Follakzoid @ Neurolux (3/5/13)

This last Tuesday was a special day for me: my blog turned one year old.  Quite a bit has happened over that time--over 24,000 pageviews, a Facebook page with over 200 likes, my first ever paying writing gig (sure, I got laid off after four months, but still...).  Oh yeah, and then there's this.  Still have a hard time believing that one.

Anyway, this show seemed like a nice way to spend HCTD's birthday.  As I've written more than a few times before, I'm a sucker for interesting names.  This one had three humdingers.  On top of that, the names were attached to out-of-state bands.

I counted about thirty-five people when I arrived at Neurolux.  When Psychic Ills played, the audience had built to at least sixty.  A solid turnout.

Follakzoid, a four-man unit all the way from Chile, opened the show.  I'm not necessarily a big fan of globalization, but if it helped expose these fellas to the Velvet Underground, fusion jazz, Led Zeppelin, etc., I suppose that you could consider that the proverbial silver lining.  While their monotone vocals, their clipped, piercing guitar and their spacey keyboard atmospherics waved that freak flag high, their fluid, understated bass and their rock-steady drumming kept the music from floating off into the ether.  Trancey but hard-rocking--a very groovy combination.

Up next was Blues Control, an electronica duo based in Coopersburg, PA.  Their mix of pretty tunes, marching beats, stinging guitar and ringing, whooshing, clanging synthesizer evoked some kind of pop/psychedelic hybrid assembly line.  Some montages of ocean waves and flickering dots added to the overall trippy-ness.  They got some good cheers and whistles from the crowd.  Here's to American craftsmanship.

New York quintet Psychic Ills closed out the night.  With their droning riffs, detached vocals, elegantly raw soloing and smoothly lumbering tempos, you'd be forgiven if you switched to them on Radio Boise and swore you were listening to some old-school, Neil Young-besotted grungester (J. Mascis, Brett Netson, etc.).  Devotee of Zuma and Ragged Glory that I am, this suited me just fine (although it did start to get just a little boring near the end).  The well-lubricated rhythm section was a welcome bonus.  The crowd did a bit of swaying but mostly seemed content to stand and bathe in the blood of the drone.  Just one question: where'd the incense come from?  Was somebody trying to out-VaC the VaC?

You can find info on these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Special thanks to Eric Gilbert and Radio Boise.