Scene and Heard

Test Patterns Four

Photos by Tina Junker » With Crystal Stilts, Nice Face, Nerve City, Gary Wary, Ron Morelli, Cowboy Mark, Marcos Cabral, and Yr Friend Matthew

Text by Impose Automaton
Posted on May 19, 2009

Photo by Stephanie Andreanas

Nice Face, who was once just some loner recording some minimal garage fucked up wave stuff in his bedroom (or so we assumed) turned out to be a full band -- revealing himself (themselves) to the world in their first live show ever at our Test Patterns party last week. Richmond's Nerve City offered up a crushing rendition of his own bedroom tunes, which on headphones or home speakers resound spookily as they warble out of tune in search of a "Midnight Sun" and the like, and demolish with live drums and a real, live front man.

The Cowboy Mark-curated basement remains Test Pattern's ever-less secret weapon: you can smoke and drink whatever you want down there (free PBR, perhaps?), as deejays used to big-ass club systems spin on our little PA and our favorite visual projection artists layer the walls with hallucinogens.

Meanwhile, Gary War had some fucked up shenanigans involving a missing Jansport bag full of gear (?!) and delivered a pared-down, intense, if stoic, set. And then there's Crystal Stilts. You know 'em, you've been told to love them, and you know what? Do it. We're known on this blog to be grumblers and whimperers, anti-shakers and contrarians, but sometimes guitars are too jangly to be denied, shimmering hooks too perfectly tuned to your late night buzz to be rejected. They came, they played, they ruled. (And for those who went, send a personal thanks to Caleb at Sacred Bones for stellar curatorial services).