Notes on GT_v3.4

When it rains and it pours, and for the first hour of our set it was a true monsoon. Before the downpour, there was tension brewing between artists as well as a mutual aid group. On that day, mutual aid typically sets up in Washington Square Park. We had permits so needed to erect the set and sound check. This infuriated mutual aid, a wonderful group who we did not want to ruffle feathers with. After some negotiations and waiting for rain to subside we started.

Many of our cables and gear were submerged and a fair amount of audio gear ceased to work. The resulting sound was quite interesting, as the entire mix sounded bit crushed in a manner that would be hard to re-create in digital post. Grateful that our audio was not totally fried.

During this show we had multiple members of the public perform with us completely impromptu. Artist Michael Alan - whose supremely talented performance artist partner Jadda Cat joined him in the audience to watch, a man jumped on “stage” to do vocals over the band, and notably Tess Patalano created a totally improvised set with Crackhead Barney. Now Tess is a core member of our group. She also took black and white film shots of our event.

As for the band ; Alex Romania (Klutz, Junkhead) lent his supreme talents and made sonic magic with his no-input mixer, as well as performing with a mysterious liquid at one point in the set. SMOMID held down the groove with his custom built MIDI controller space age guitar, Jacob Cohen added yet another dimension with his also custom made cello, and Marcin floated effortlessly atop the futurist grunge grooves with his wild woodwind ways. MAKS brought many new sculptures and masks, supported by costumed Nick Flo and Hudson.

*Of note, MAKS forgot his new mask to be debuted and Hudson graciously took a two hour round trip to Ridgewood to retrieve it right in the nick of time.