Soda Bar and Electric Guitars
By Chad Deal | Published Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011
January saw an assortment of local noise artists molesting their instruments at Trummerflora Collective’s second annual Experimental Guitar Show, emceed by Sam Lopez (Zsa Zsa Gabor). Highlights included dreamy loops by Pall Jenkins (Three Mile Pilot, Black Heart Procession), atonal fuzz issued through modified amps by Henry Barnes (Man Is the Bastard, Amps for Christ), and a glitched out “Star Spangled Banner” by Bobby Bray (the Locust, Innerds).
Abel Ashes’s erratic acoustic guitar work was followed by Randy Chiurazzi, who was bleeding from the hand minutes into his set as he ground his guitar against foil, pennies, sanding discs, wires, and bits of ducting attached to his white jumpsuit. SxDx Noise honcho Frank Melendez (Riververb, Sprung Monkey) ignited firecrackers in an oil drum and looped chugging krautdoom riffs as the sulfur stink lurked through the crowd.
The League of Assholes consisted of Marcelo Radulovich, Esteban Flores, and Soda Bar’s other booking agent, Peter Graves (Roxy Jones), layering feedback while Michael J. Stevens struck his 100-string guitar with a hand tool. The Frankenstein instrument was affixed with a cymbal over the sound hole and 99 strings spiraling off the body from unlikely locations. Stevens eventually produced the 100th string and proceeded to floss sonic plaque from the cymbal and fret board while everything groaned like a shipwreck.