A Car Factory? Ep. 3 Noize!

It was a rather strange Saturday night to start with. It was so god damn cold, and the Ford Plant wasn't open when Matt and I arrived. We waited a bit, and finally someone opened the doors. We clambered inside and sat on the couch in an attempt to gain more warmth. Nolan arrived a bit later and we moved into the main room of the Ford Plant

This was not a normal Ford Plant show, this was Noize, an all-noise-music night at the FP. I had been looking forward to this for a while.

Anyways, the first act was the captivating Rob Michalchuk, or Forms and Logs as many others know him by. Imagine if an old Atari game was possessed by the ghost of a crazed free-form jazz musician. The set started off with the immediately recognizable bleep-bloop-blaps that we love Forms and Logs for. The two Atari screens were flashing erratically and Rob was focussed on his work, to make some delicious noise. Carefully, while a loop of bleeps was running, he grabbed his saxophone and began to just riff on it. Forms and Logs is always memorable and never long enough, as I found that I was left wanting more. My only problem was that I found the volume was a little too low, this problem was soon to be remedied by the next group.

Mr. Michalchuk quickly moved his gear off the stage and Icabod Is Itchy took over. Unfortunately, technical difficulties hampered the experience (I feel like I've said that before...)
They finally got everything working. One man was standing in front of two keyboards, a computer, and a mixer. The other had a microphone attached to a lamp post and had a guitar slung around his neck. I was quite excited to see what was soon to be heard when I saw the keyboardist don a bunch of nets and lights. It seemed as a fiery bear was on stage. Icabod fired up the ol' drum machine and the set started.

Okay, we were right by one of the heads that was hanging from the ceiling, so I had piercing high frequencies from the keyboard going into my right ear. So I was wincing a bit when the flaming bear was using a wah-pedal-like effect. The singer was banging on his guitar in a removed manner and his vocals were distorted with some weird effect. Overall, it sounded like 80's synthesizer rock from hell. Samples of people speaking were being manipulated by the keyboardist, and it just seemed kind of gimmicky to me (though it was very funny when one of the samples was the Grinch saying, "All that noise, noise, noise"). To make things even stranger, the singer put on a captain's hat and a whip, and started to shout at us. I had no idea what he was trying to get across, but that whip was making me nervous. Anyways, it was all just performance art, no one was killed, not even the gold fish that they had at the front of the stage.

At this point I was slightly disappointed, it was already 10 o'clock, only two sets had been played, and none of the noise had been that gut-wrenching rumble I was looking for...

Suddenly, the four members of Fossils, one of which was Forms and Logs, swooped in and saved the night. They played one of the most incredible performances I have ever witnessed. These people mauled their instruments and gear, and spat it us in a giant fuzzy hunk of noise. Each of the four members was so separate from each other, and yet they somehow were working together the whole time. Rob Michalchuk was closest to us, sitting quietly with his sax and a couple of effects pedals. One guy hiding behind some gear had a telecaster that he attacked with a metal disc. He ended up violently shaking it for feedback. Another was calmly standing at a table with a bunch of gear, he would occasionally pluck at a guitar beside him. Last guy was constantly hopping between his mixers, pedals, and a guitar. This was a sexy guitar too, it looked like an Eastwood, (drools). He would tap on it, and then position it around, or on, the amp to get different tones of feedback. At one point he was holding his guitar by the headstock and was waving the body at the amplifier. It was pretty fucking epic. I was left in awe of the aural pounding that everyone had just suffered, and yet never once did find it painful to listen to.

The last act we saw was a young man with dreadlocks who sat in front of two suitcases and created the most intense noise of the night.

Matt, Nolan, and I had gone to get hydration. On the way back to the Ford Plant, I could hear some strange noises. I soon realized that I could hear the next act a block from the Ford Plant. I admit that at this point I felt two emotions: excitement, and cold fear. We entered the FP and the noise was incredible. The whole room was saturated with white noise, and all of it emitted from one amplifier. It was nuts. On occasion I would see the guy yelling into a green toy phone, so I can only guess that he was using some circuit-bent instruments. After he finished his hissing wailing set, I felt exhausted.

I was already tired, and I had work in the morning. So we departed, I'm not sure how Nolan or Matt felt about this, but I was sad. We had only witnessed half the noise, but it would have gone too late. I left with muffled hearing and a cool split LP of Fossils and Sick Llama.

A lot of the show followed me home, not counting the ringing in my ears. The fact that these musicians were so supportive of each other, and how we saw a whole different group of Ford Plant clientele. I wonder if that elderly couple was actually there for the noise, or if the guy with the creepy "Chigurh " haircut enjoyed himself. It certainly was a strange night, but a memorable one at that.
-Lucas Thurston

P.S. Oh and it was god damn fucking cold out too! What the hell!?

P.P.S. Seriously, suede is not as warm as it seems.