The Experimental Music Caucus at The Space Concert Club (6 February 2020)

​Sometimes the story of any given show seems to require some context than can be adequately offered on a flier. Occasionally I’ll go out of my way to try and give that context, because I think it helps explain who people are, why they are there, and what leg of their creative journey they happen to be on. But sometimes you just have to dive in; certainly, not everyone at a show knows what you’re talking about, who you are, or even wants to know the details of your career. Sometimes they’re just there for a drink, and happen to be crossing your path. So even the back-story, if provided, can go un-regarded. They aren’t there for the Music Caucus, they just really like the burritos. 

The Space Concert Club, as it exists now, is the second iteration of this venue, the first having been at a different location, and a few years previous. I discovered it because they put on an experimental show one night, with two gentlemen that I had met through radio (Uneasy Chairs & devilsclub, back in November of 2016). At that time, The Space had only been open for less than a year. I sort of fell in love with the place almost immediately. It’s a very down-home operation, run by three friends: one does the kitchen (Summer), one runs the sound (Stan), and one runs the booking (Doug). After I had established myself in Salem, both on the radio and through ’zines, I approached Doug about booking some semi-regular experimental shows.

As I understood it, while no one was actively apposed to hosting them, no one person (outside of artists trying to set something up themselves) had tried to book experimental music on the regular. Salem was, and still is to a degree, dominated by rock music type bands. There are more retro-grunge, metal and indie-rock adjacent musicians in our town than anything else, and while there are enough “weird” bands in the area to sustain a monthly experimental evening, it wasn’t really on the menu… yet.

While I’m stroking egos, here are some things that make The Space a better venue than almost anywhere else I’ve worked or played. First, it’s very easy to book. There’s an online form, they are open to all sorts of music in all sorts of genres, and they are happy to try something until it actively does not work. They are about as DIY as you can make a public venue that is also a business. For example: my shows almost never earn much money, and usually it’s no different for The Space (financially) than if they hadn’t had a band playing at all. And having live entertainment, even very weird entertainment, still brings people into the bar. So they have no complaints with us putting on shows, and really seem to encourage it; we don’t “scare” customers away, we don’t hassle the staff or make it hard for them, and usually, I bring in some interesting acts that seem to generate a positive response, at the very least. 

The bar is also vegan, which is nice for touring acts, and if the show is over by 10 PM, we can claim it is “All Ages,” and still have alcohol for sale for the adults, according to the strange OLCC customs here in Oregon. It’s nice to be shoulder to shoulder with people of any age at a show, and know that the kid and I can both experience music without having to go through that weird separation that some venues require. Lastly, I will say that The Space consistently has some of the best sound of any club I’ve ever been to. They record and live-stream every performance, and they always feed every performer, even if the show made no money that night. Since the people organizing the show can set the door price (or choose not to have one), I’d say that the venue supports our scene better than almost anywhere I’ve put on shows, and that includes “bigger” cities with more “sophisticated” scenes.

I’ll put it this way: Portland and Eugene are bigger, and it is harder to play at the places that do exist in those towns, where the sound is much worse (and there’s no food for performers). I regularly bring people to The Space, and find that they have never played through a sound system with monitors before, or to hear that they have never been treated well by a Sound Engineer until they met Stan. The Space built all of that themselves, on purpose, as performers who were frustrated with how sub-par venues could be. I commend them for understanding that our music is as interesting as any other band that wants to play in town, and that a harsh noise wall deserves as much care and attention as an acoustic guitar-wielding folk-performer. 

Way back in December of 2019, when I started planning this show, it began as a Tour Stop / New Album Promotional Gambit for Fischkopf Sinfoniker, an artist I’ve been a fan of for quite some time, and have hosted on my radio program previously. (Fischkopf Sinfoniker on Mid-Valley Mutations in 2017.) I enjoy not only their music, but their reference points, and listening to their tunes evokes old-school industrial with an ear for modern sounds and gear. So, check them out when you can.

Ironically, after arranging the entire show around their return to Salem, and booking the other acts to complement this lineup, I was incredibly saddened to discover that they had an emergency, and could not travel in the days leading up to the show. This is, of course, some behind the scenes sausage-making that really had no impact on how anything on the night went, except to say that, less that 24 Hours before the show was to start, I got some distressing messages, and was clambering for another act so I could re-calculate how it would all work out. 

​I usually prepare my sets with regard to the specific show / acts that I’m playing with, but with this change, I jettisoned the set that I had prepared — something a little more ambient and without voice samples — and instead re-arranged the entire evening. The new line-up, now that Tethys stepped in to do a full set, and with everyone else being flexible amid the chaos, reminded me of the politics we've been watching, and launched in me the notion that we were having an Experimental Caucus, and we were going to receive the results from different performers and regions throughout the night. Very quickly, everything started to come together.

​As it was, Dryad had cooked up something rather unique for the show anyway, squeezing an extra act into the show by dividing her time up among two performers, so it seemed like the kinds of shenanigans that happened at political gatherings was already underway with us too. Dryad herself has been booking shows in Eugene, OR going back to the early ’90’s, and her involvement with Icky’s Teahouse and the Merkin Lounge made those venues essential for touring bands looking for a sympathetic places for weirdos to play shows and congregate. She currently books at The Rooted Space in Eugene, and her open mic nights and experimental showcases have a very cool vibe. She plays in a number of acts, and while none of them were available for this show, she threw all of that aside anyway and arranged something new with Tethys, whom she’d never performed with before. Also of note: to my knowledge, both Tethys and Degradation Chamber are relatively new to the area, and certainly had never played in Salem before. 

​I’ve played a few shows with Brad over the years, and he’s also been a guest on my program previously. (Brad Anderson on WTBC Radio in 2019). Brad’s performances are incredible, as he applies classical and compositional ideas and theories to modern Electronic and Experimental Musical sounds, with very cool results. Brad came all the way from Federal Way, Washington for this show, and is one of those dedicated dudes who really will drive several hours just to play, only to drive right back, even if there is no money. On two occasions Brad drove me well out of his way to get to a place I was staying, and once just because he was attending the show (he wasn’t even playing). All of this comes through in his work: his dedication, his attention to detail, and the production value of his music is due to a person as focused as he is. 

Our caucus, while not fully well rounded, did a pretty good job of offering a range of ideas and perspectives. Artists do represent different regions and regional ideas, and they bring to each performance the scene that they are all soaking in before they come and perform for you. The Eugene scene is very different than what Salem offers, and the same could be said for Brad up in Federal Way. With all of this in my head, I started cutting Monty Python samples, and recruited some assistance from a few artist friends of mine on social media. A member of The Dead Air Fresheners, Eden Mononym and Paul Pearson all sent me various “caucus” results, and these samples began to provide the frame for how I would proceed with my set.

In terms of execution, the show was flawless, and I owe this to the fine people at The Space, and our own professionalism as performers. The Space is always very accommodating, and we had a particularly calm group of artists this evening, all engaged and excited to check out what everyone was up to. It was the kind of show with a lot of gear talk between sets, and questions about what everyone does for this or that problem. Everyone played short, so we were ahead of schedule all night, which only seemed to add to the good mood for both us and the staff.

There was a very nice atmosphere of camaraderie and connectivity, as people who didn’t know each other met and exchanged thoughts. The moment Tethys started playing, I could predict that Brad would dig the set, and sure enough, they were chatting about everything afterwards.

Degradation Chamber, someone who I’ve only ever seen wear a somewhat somber look on his face, smiled when I started chatting him up about his set, and how much I enjoyed it. I think the positive energy was just too hard to resist. 

More than a good show, or even a successful show, I want to put on a show where people feel the community I feel when I consider my place in Experimental Music. When I see someone perform something that moves me, I want them to be in the club, to hang out with the people I know, and to share what they have to offer with everyone else, too. There is something about bringing together the disparate parts of our scene for a night of fun and music feel like something positive. As we were packing up, while there weren’t crowds of people around, it felt like more of a success than some of the bigger shows I’ve booked. 

Public Photoset of A/V from the evening. 

* A Note about the videos embedded: these were, primarily, taken from The Space Concert Club's live-streaming videos that post to their Facebook Page. In the case of the Tethys & Dryad video, this came from Dryad's live streaming coverage of the show. (I was holding the phone.) For the Mini-Mutations set, I edited video from a number of camera sources, and synched it to a recording I made off of my mixer during the show. 

You can find a lot of videos on My YouTube Page and on the Mid-Valley Mutations Facebook Page, where I post and live-stream a number of DIY musical events that I encounter.