65daysofstatic

Dance! Crash! Tiger! Retreat! Oh but au contraire, far from retreat indeed. One can surmise a 65daysofstatic (65dos) gig as archaeologists digging for fossils in a Brown motion that lead them towards watching the brilliant minds of 65dos work their instruments to the limit. Simply enjoy the static, and you will be rewarded.

Deepset kickstarted the night with powerful tunes that linger in your head long enough for you to pick it apart to notice that the layers of music were carefully articulated and floored. After emerging as the openers for Mono a few years back, they continue to be at the forefront of the local post-rock scene.

Everything changes in the dark (a nightmare for photographers, though). As they dimmed the lights after a short stint with spot lights that caused the members to melt on stage, the entire dynamic of the band changed thereafter and it was hard to even catch a beat, let alone your own breath from then on. They went off like bullets against blocked piano keys.

I apologize for the use of the most random descriptions and nouns, I have a feeling that for every person in that room, they would seemingly come across a different set of nouns or adjectives to interpret the songs in their own personal way. That is the beauty of this genre of music though, of not having lyrics to sing. The emotional freedom to create allows for the audience to be involved with the displayed music, even if unintentionally.

Double drumming whereby another member of the band assists the drummer in doubling the efforts of the drums, has always been my one true weakness at gigs. Each member assisted the drummer with double duties at one point or another, which flaunted their versatility in commanding not just one instrument. The one song that really sealed the deal for me though, was Mountainhead. The utter perfection of the timing in that song, that resonates so well with all four members plus the sound engineer, Frank, I absolutely salute their dedication for the sheer amount of practice that must have gone in for rehearsals to get that track just right.

When crowd favourite Radio Protector finally came along after 65dos teased the fans that they would actually skip it, the labours of playing together for well over a decade since the formation of 65dos can be seen by how comfortable they all were. Sure, mistakes were bound to happen (the bass came in a verse earlier than it was supposed to) but the audience clearly dismissed it quickly with the insistent mix of keyboard triads, minor sevenths, and semitones.

As I mentioned earlier, simply enjoy the static, and you will be handsomely rewarded.