Posts Tagged ‘Chromatic Mysteries’
Photos: Avant Fairfax II
The lessened novelty, the rain and the timing – before local students have gotten back into the swing of things – all conspired such that this past weekend’s second iteration of Avant Fairfax wasn’t quite as well-attended as the first. But that didn’t stop eight bands (and one filmmaker) from putting on an entertaining spectacle in an unfinished second story of a nameless commercial building in downtown Fairfax.
Some personal highlights:
- Janel and Anthony’s set was my favorite, a cello/guitar duo that bounced between experimental noise and beautiful, pastoral melody.
- Max Ochs (pictured above) performed a Turkish song, confessing that he doesn’t know a word of Turkish. His lyrics were a “trans-phoneticism” (his term) instead of a translation – he basically took the original Turkish vocals and turned them into their closest English analogue by sound alone.
- Gondola played a single long jam with gobs of head-nodding riffs, psychedelic wailing and no dynamics whatsoever. They’ve got the Earthless-style heavy psych-rock thing down to a T.
More thoughts and photos after the jump, and see the full gallery here.
Avant Fairfax Returns Tomorrow
April’s inaugural Avant Fairfax festival was such a success that the organizers immediately turned around and starting working on the next installment. The second iteration of the festival is now upon us, and will feature a diverse lineup of eight performers (from the folk stylings of Max Ochs to the psych-rock of Dark Sea Dream and Gondola) as well as a short film.
It’s scheduled for 5pm-1am tomorrow, August 22, 2009; here’s hoping for tighter timing, as the original fest went overtime and forced headliners Cheer-Accident to cut their set short. The venue this time around is the ” . ” (Point in Space) Gallery in Fairfax City [3940 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030]. Suggested donation $5.
Check out the lineup after the jump or visit Avant Fairfax at Myspace.
Photo: John Stanton of Kuschty Rye-Ergot, from the first fest.
