sur­pris­ing local con­cert action tonight: gang gang dance played at the bug jar (aka the hip­ster bar). $10, hel­lza yes, i’m there. shout-​​out to the prof who said “hey, you’ll never guess who’s com­ing to the bug jar?”

so, crap, what a good show. i haven’t seen a band with such good sense of rhyth­mic inter­play since TNT–era tor­toise. of course you had to dance. you had to. unless your hip felt weird from falling asleep on the couch (speak­ing from expe­ri­ence), in which case you stood there and tried to do a one-​​legged sway­ing gyra­tion. you could tell this was a band from the same scene as !!! — both are the same kind of chaotic-​​mishmash-​​party.

i think they played for about 90 min­utes, but there were only about 7 or 8 “songs”. there were only about four breaks in music, includ­ing the encore. (also won­der­ful to see a band come out and do an encore because the crowd wanted them to, not as a fore­gone con­clu­sion.) i recog­nised about 5 or 6 tracks, but they expand and alter them so much live. much more chaotic and glo­ri­ous. almost seems like get­ting into them via the live set would be a let­down. the albums are just more restrained and com­posed, i suppose.

as i write this, i’m won­der­ing why i don’t love this band more. the music is per­fectly geared towards me:

• 20% peter gabriel’s birdy soundtrack
• 20% my bloody valentine
• 15% afropop
• 10% cocteau twins
• 10% can
• 10% dub
• 5% tan­ger­ine dream
• 5% ninety–era 808 state
• 5% bailé funk

i’ll have to make it up to myself.