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Posted in Intonation | music | pictures on June 28, 2006

Boredoms @ 2006 Intonation Festival, Chicago | pics

"Festival rosters are always full of safe bets – so here's to the organizers for booking Boredoms, probably the most challenging act on the roster. My guess is that not many in the audience knew what to expect from the band on one of only a handful of live American dates in the last few years.

The group wasted no time, sending a six-drumstick attack from the group's drummers to produce round after round of locked groove. Occasionally, the pounding would open up to make way for one Boredom or another to chase some weird mini-rhythm down the rabbit hole, but always returning to the previous driving rhythm. After the pause that marked the end of the first half of the set, circuit guru Yamataka Eye led the group on a more eerie path.

Every off-pattern fill from the drum corps ushered in a meltdown from Eye, and usually another palpable BPM bump. Pretty fitting then how the band's sometimes krauty moments of beat driving would change so fluidly into more giddy and freewheeling abstractions. As drummer Yoshimi Yokota (she of the Flaming Lips' namesake, yes) took to the keys to close the set, the audience had witnessed Boredoms' three-drum pile up morph into something more conventionally beautiful. A criminally short set time notwithstanding, this was a real treat from a band that continues to surprise old fans while stunning new ones."

Posted on June 28, 2006 5:01 PM

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