April 2, 2008 at the Log Cabin

Kid Primitive Family
Doog/Brother Dolphin
Normanoak
Castle Oldchair

April 2, 2008
Sonny's Log Cabin
Bloomington, IN
Recorded by Ben Myers

Stream/Download

Two years ago Sonny lived in a cabin in the heart of Bloomington's south-central neighborhood, hidden away by suburban illusion.  A dozen to two dozen people gathered there that evening for shared food and music; Janice and I brought Oliver but they had to leave after the Prim Family because Oliver had to go to bed.  I considered including some of the extraneous audio I recorded which had Oliver telling people to "SMILE!" and giggling, but the material was sparse and while I enjoyed the ebb and flow of conversations caught by the microphone and I wondered what I maybe would hear on another listen, perhaps entire conversations could be culled if listened to intensely enough, and I decided against the inclusion of this material and instead remind anyone who was there of Oliver and his game with this wonderful run-on sentence.  Enjoy.

Justin and Lindsay captured even Oliver's attention by looping their voices and reciting mantras, creating a soothing aural fluid with a hint of feedback; I love the blend.  Eric played solo acoustic on this evening, a nice set of laid-back tunes which would probably have been performed from the porch had the cabin been in the woods instead of a residential alley.  Chris Barth's performance remains my favorite of the evening, beginning with Amorila, recently released by Magnetic South on the Elixer cassette.  He touched and moved many emotions on that evening, peaking when he played a song to help rid himself of the pain from his recent breakup.  It is intense, and if you need to feel the pain of frustration and loss and feel the release, then Normanoak's fifth song is prescribed to you.  Closing the evening was Castle Oldchair, who I had never seen nor heard before.  His set was a sprawl of loops and layers, vocals and perhaps samples.  I remember being completely entranced, giving him a tape, finding his cd at the library and being thoroughly confused that it consisted of songs with structure and clear vocals.  In the words of Eddie Vedder: "It's evolution, baby."  Do teh evolution.  This show is awesome.  Listen to it.