On the ride up to Denton, the brownish pall in the air was noticeable. We've had 15 days of unhealthy air in the 817, and the skies reminded me of the way Abilene used to look when the dust was so thick it would blow under the door to our house. I was on my ass for weeks with respiratory problems in '67 and '70. After that I reckoned I'd grown out of them, but in retrospect, Nixon stood up the EPA in December '70, so there's that. At least now I have an albuterol inhaler and docs who aren't afraid to prescribe a dose pack of steroids when things get acute. With the EPA gutted by DOGE and the current regime, I expect this to get worse. Maybe time to start masking again.
The curtain raiser at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios for Porous Sonorous, impresario extraordinaire Ernesto Montiel's new series of migratory creative music events, featured three stunning collaborative sets, with Chad Withers' curated short films (Short Attention Span Theater) screening in the intervals. In between I inhaled a smoked turkey sammie from the estimable Render Texas Delicatessen food truck, which on this occasion I upgraded with a side of green and red grapes that were enormous, crisp, and delicious. And this morning I'm listening to the late Dennis Gonzalez's album Welcome To Us after hearing it last night on the house music Ernesto curated under his Mutarrancho DJ guise.
Opening set was a collaboration between the duo Ruptured Implant (that's Rachel Weaver on voice and electronics, Kristina Smith on voice, instruments, and objects) and Louise Fristensky on "Mooglet." The Ruptured Implant musicians have a nice synergy, and on this occasion, Smith's untreated voice came to the fore as she wove a narrative of personal malaise and chronic pain, adding a collection of pharmaceutical bottles (real ones from her medicine chest) to her regular array of accordion and bass guitar. It was a bold gesture of self-revelation, and her collaborators responded with deep listening and sonic accompaniment that lifted up her powerful words.
Like everyone else in Fort Worth, I play guitar, and I am superannuated enough to make Yardbirds/Who comparisons in my head every time I see an experimental guitarist put a violin bow on strings, or crouch down in front of an amp to get feedback. But Baton Rouge-based axe-slinger Hal Lambert is a cat of a different stripe. To begin with, the base tone from his modded Fender (equipped with P-90 and humbucking pickups) is rich and warm, so when he starts looping layers of texture, the impact is like floating on waves of harmonic goodness.
His dialogue with drummer Joshua Canate (Trio Glossia, Flesh Narc, Same Brain) wended its way through several movements, the two musicians creating parallel streams that coalesced beautifully but briefly at times (my favorite: after Hal broke a string and was applying a screwdriver to the remaining ones and Joshua started matching his rhythm on cymbals). Climactically, Joshua knocked one of his cymbal stands into the overhead mic stand, then proceeded to deconstruct the rest of his kit in a manner I once saw employed by Tatsuya Nakatani at RBC (except in Tatsuya's case the entire percussion rig collapsed; game over!).
NB: Trio Glossia will be sharing two bills in September with my other favorite band, Monks of Saturnalia. September 5 will find the two units at Texas Theatre celebrating Trio Glossia leader/drummer/vibraphonist Stefan Gonzalez's 40th birthday, while September 20, they'll be at Full City Rooster on the occasion of Monks' abbot Gregg Prickett's 60th. Don't you dare miss either date.
The closing set teamed Monte Espina (Ernesto on guitar and objects, Miguel Espinel on drums, small instruments, and electronics) with guitarist Justin Lemons in a set that highlighted Miguel's multi-instrumental versatility and penchant for always finding the right sound to compliment Ernesto's volcanic/tectonic rumblings and, in this instance, Lemons' textural and rhythmic interjections. A passing train -- the rite of passage for all Gloves performers -- drew the performers into a lengthy crescendo that climaxed their set and the evening, and I had to jet in a hurry because I've been waking at 5am and I could feel sleep beckoning (made it home okay, obviously). I'm expecting great things from this series; this was an auspicious opening. Kudos to all involved, including sound tech Aubrey Seaton, who always makes everyone sound their best.
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