Yellow Swans last Olympia show

a couple of weeks ago Olympia was blessed with the prescence of the Yellow Swans from Portland (PDX, as it is sometimes called). These dudes are heavy hitters. i've seen even the most devout of noise haters be rocked by these guys. anyway, they came up on a tour with Sissy Spacek of LA and played over at the Phoenix house. the show was fucking packed, and was the most people i've ever seen at a noise show in Oly.

David from Foque Mopus started off the night with a fucking posse of rippers including Kenny and Nick from Peaches:Breaches and Devon from the Phoenix House Couch. they rolled as the Olympia Noyes Allstars. it was fucking great is all i have to say about it. a big cluster jam that didn't sound like a wall of static and pedal mashing. high lights included girl standing between shredz and audience doing poses with jug of water and otherwise making people feel awkward via exposing crotch/yelling "I LOVE YOU SO MUCH".

Next was Guy himself doing his Floortom shit. combo of sampler, delay, drum hits whatever whatever. it was fully the shit, one of the best sets i've ever seen him drop. the high lites included the truth hitting that nirvana started punk rock. it was a beautiful set all together, not too much of one thing, no getting bogged down.

Then came Midwife from Everett, Washington (i've never heard of it either) who brought back the rowdy and harshed some deserving mellows. this band is a rock band. this band is a rock band. Dan wore a nighty and regulated the harsh pit. this band is a rock band.

The Dead White played. shit cut out towards the end.

Yellow Swans came next and in total fashion, Gabe gave props to everyone who played. then they did it and it was cosmic beauty. i mean this band is important. it's dudes playing nothing short of noise on tables containing a multitude of equipment (including four mixers and something like 2-3 hand held tape players) and yet it's a shit load more than that. it would be the third and final time i've seen them. always though, during about the middle to beginning of their sets you can't escape, and it's not even like the thought crosses your mind. the sound is huge and incredible, not so much loud as it is encompassing. you see Gabe play his guitar and you hear it a little but it fits in. somewhere there was the sound of Pete hitting the contact mic and creating a beat and also in their were his vocals. they are a really magnificent band in short. it's too bad they are breaking up, though these things happen as shitty as that ALWAYS sounds.

Sissy Spacek came next and had trouble running their sound well. it was all coming out of a PA and was super muddy and quiet. they played maybe three songs (about 5 minutes alltogether, probably less) which was sort of a let down as this band can be furious and then...

Sissy Spacek+Yellow Swans which was all them doing jerky noise. lots of starts and abrupt stops. room for quiet but just enough as well for loud. lots of space and it was almost a come down (but not in a dissapointing way) from the energy of the Yellow Swans set. incredible.

also:through out the whole night, Guy was DJing jams like none other and prior to the Yellow Swans set the whole room was getting seriously down, including Yellow Swans Gabe inbetween plugging in shit. it was real

this show was a great thing for this town. there wasn't really a bad set and there was a shitload of people to see it all happen and to support all of this shit. everyone held it down really well and it was overwhelmingly nice.