Guerilla Noise- 11/12

After being removed from the Army of the Arts for an extended period of time, due to Lucky and Pozzo doing what it was supposed to do and thereby making me horribly depressed every time it happened, I decided to return, without warning, in a vigilante style mission.

Setting up shop outside of the Raynor Memorial Library on the Marquette Campus (roughly 14th and Wisconsin) with two small amps, a handful of pedals, a mic, a mixer and a table at around 2:30, I dove head first into a fifteen minute improvised noise set. . Varying between low end rumbles (which unfortunately just sounded like static due to the small amps) and panning throat singing, I'd have to say I was pleased with the set. It's been a while since I have taken the "plug in and play" style of performance, so getting that out there felt kind of awesome.

Judging the reactions of the audience proved almost impossible. I threw my hood up and faced away from the general public to better focus on what I was doing, so I couldn't really see what was going on. A few familiar faces stopped and talked to me afterwards about what was going on. They said a pretty decent crowd formed about half way through the performance, but moved on before I ended. The majority of the crowd was apparently male (the potential female audience members mainly just stopped their conversations on their cell phones long enough to give me a strange look).

The only interaction I had with the audience came about half way through the set, when a bearded, older man approached me with an angry/concerned face, and demanded to know what I was doing. I responded, tongue firmly in cheek, that this is "noise, man, its the wave of the future" (note: that's compeletely wrong. Noise started in the 1800's with Luigi Russolo, but I find that answer hilarious). The man said "Ok," and walked on.

Although I consider this a success, improvements need to be made for next time:
1. Louder amps that are still portable. (Has to be a combo of some sort, maybe on wheels. Anyone have a Roland keyboard amp?)
2. Less gear. (This is easily achieved. The next set will probably drop the mixer, table, and 4 of my 6 pedals.)
3. A better visual aspect. (Next time around, I want to have a written message plastered on my back, so its not just a guy with pedals, but a guy with pedals and a purpose)



So until next time, ask not what the arts can do for you, but what you can fucking smash with that hammer.

Peter J Woods