The Visual Underground / Goodbye Blue Monday show
Casbah, Thu. 2/15
review by Brian LaVallie
The Visual Underground event at the Casbah was well attended with many searching for space in the back to view the screen as the chairs placed on the floor were full as well as the sides. The short films or videos (dvd projections) were entertaining with a variety of styles present in the two session screenings. One titled Billy and Sally had two doll characters used like puppets, who terrorized in a manner similar to Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis in Natural Born Killers, with cigarettes in their mouths they burned property and other dastardly deeds while howling in laughter. Another short had two roommates involved in a Laurel and Hardy type back and forth about whether or not one had fucked the other in the ass. As they went back and forth it is revealed that the one whose ass was sore had forced the other one to sign a disclosure agreement verifying that he wouldn’t say he had fucked him in the ass even though he did as well as a taped message of him saying “Fuck me in the ass but don’t tell anyone,” as they had been taking the date rape drug rohipnol with beers. Most were edgy, all were entertaining.
The artwork present in the “Atari Lounge” of the Casbah was by Tim Walikis. It featured acrylic painted on canvas and woodcuts with organic lines with minimal color schemes in a good variety of scales reminding me of the work of the Chicago Imagist school artist Jim Nutt. Other work was with wood in ornamental relief as well as my favorite, a woodcut that looked like he may have used a dremel tool to create (draw) an interesting character in bust view who seemed to have interesting things to say, with the linear language of his paintings providing texture, he then stained and incorporated linear painting as well. Many viewed and mused on the images with enthusiasm.
Next Goodbye Blue Monday took the stage with a gratuitous introduction by the Visual Underground MC. They began with a newer song not in their portfolio of recordings consisting of their two CDs from Loud and Clear produced Next Time We Stop Breathing from 2003 and Help Is On the Way from 2005, which won best alternative album in 2005 at the San Diego Music Awards (they won best alternative band in 2006). They sounded tight and transitioned well from song to song with the intertwining guitars of vocalist Matt Mourning and Demetrius Antuna calling for bass player Dario Izarraras to join with harmonizing melodic vibrance and drummer Jason Hooper to fill in the bass and add heaviness and relevance to the emotions generated by Matt Mournians lyrics and distinct voice as he sang, “A thousand times a day, I run away, Everybody knows we’re in love”, from the Help is On the Way’s hit Painkillers in Love or on their recent myspace offering, Say You Will, as he croons “I’m always ready for sleep-at the wrong time, I’m always ready for you-all the way down, ….Waited all night, wasted time, wasted all night, I’m always ready for you-all the way down”. Goodbye Blue Monday achieved a full range of tonal value, providing pleasing changes and building crescendos while video imagery of color backgrounds with effects like the beginning of film reels and what looked like streaming computer coding played off of the musicians like disco ball lights traveling at twenty or ninety mph with the music for increased effect. While sounding original, Goodbye Blue Monday clearly nods to influences like Interpol, Fugazi and the Cure (they recently had a three song set at the San Diego Sports Club where they covered the Cure’s 10:15 on a Saturday Night and A Forest with reverence while allowing their own interpretations). Unfortunately for fans of their first release, they rarely play the songs live anymore, but instead focus ahead with the now well instilled line-up meshing really confidently together on their newer compositions. I like to think that given a longer set time, that they would include Living Is Easy, Let’s Make Sense! or even Risky. Hopefully a new release is on the way soon. Look out for them to be an edgy contrast to the headliner The French Kicks at the Casbah March 3rd. The event was smoothly put together and run by the Visual Underground and Casbah. We hope for more. BV