The first night of the Bottling Smoke festival was all I could hope for. Lots of fun was had, beautiful psychedelic ambiance was enjoyed by all, and everyone in attendance was remarkably cool. It was a very familial atmosphere at Echo Curio last night. The first person I spoke to while I waited for friends to arrive turned out to be John Twells from Xela, who told me right off I was in for a treat, as he would be performing later in the evening as the “super group” Sea Zombies alongside Brad Rose (The North Sea, co-founder of Digitalis), Gregg Kowalsky, and Jefre Cantu (Tarentel). Speaking of Jefre, I got to catch up with him really briefly before we took in Ilyas Ahmed, and afterwards he introduced me to Danny, with whom I had a really nice conversation. Those Tarentel boys sure are friendly.
The first act of the evening was Fathmount, a stark minimalist project steeped glittery guitar noodles and infinite drones. Fantastic. The second act was Antique Brothers, who mixed down-tuned, buzzing acoustic guitar with manipulated loops, slight percussive beats and the occasional overdriven electric lead. Ilyas Ahmed floored me with his stunning guitar work and impassioned singing. Drawn-out acoustic finger-picking with trance-like vocals…like James Blackshaw, but even better. Sea Zombies were by far the loudest group to perform last night. They mixed low-end rumbles with John’s affected vocals, tone generator knob-twirling, and stereo-panned microtonal twinkles that played ping-pong in your skull to create a huge wave of sound that could shake you or alter your state depending on where you focused your attention. The final act of the night was Pocahaunted, who get mad props from me for their pun-ny band name. They took long enough to set up and soundcheck, but eventually found a nice steady groove.
Today I’ll head back over to Echo Curio at about 3:00 to catch The Alps, The North Sea, and Xela before the party moves to Mr. T’s, where Ghosting, Starving Weirdos and Tarentel are going to take us on a trip.
