Whitehouse in Buffalo

This wasn't the first time William Bennett went to Western New York. Around '00 or '01 he did some DJ sets in Rochester when he toured with his Extreme Music From Women show. Mostly playing MB, Esplendor Geometrico and NWW between sets. I was lucky enough to get my copy of Quality Time signed by him. He kinda sneered about not having a decent pen but luckily I had a better one in my pocket. Otherwise he seemed affable and humble if a bit shy...

Of course I didn't really get to talk to either him or Philip Best in Buffalo but that's alright. I did nearly have a chance to meet Best, but oh well... I would've liked to hear him say some snarky things about that town and its urban decay -- whatever he's had to say about anything has always been worth hearing anyways...

Well I got to Buffalo by 4 o'clock and managed to hit the Albright-Knox gallery before closing time. Glad to see they bought back Lucas Samaras' Mirrored Room -- featured on No Pussyfooting of course... Kinda went early towards the Icon so I made sure I knew where it was. Surrounded by unbelievable eyesores just like the old Backstreets. (Looked like Backstreets on the inside too.) Well I decided to go to Diablo for a couple of drinks and had a discussion with a guy concerning punk. I got to ask him about the Michale Graves show only 'cos I've always hated him and was hoping he got hit by rocks and bottles. Well no but I found out his band's gear was stolen, and anyways Diablo isn't even a very large club which just goes to show...

Anyways the show starts with All Have Numbers, None Have Names -- mostly this guy Dave from Cleveland with Ben of Locust Sympathiser guesting. Seemed like taking the idea of the 'Cle scene associated with Pere Ubu but bringing it a bit further by only playing tin-cans. Seemed definitely like a surreal David Thomas-written scenario, that!

And of course Pengo. John Schoen talked alot like this was the show of his dreams! Bringing the band on good form, with Nuuj even dusting off those old hot-wired metal sheets from Hilkka and Sheet daze, for old-times sake. William and Philip looked at the band from the balcony a number of times...

And Whitehouse's Buffalo set was even better and louder than the one I saw at Rothko! Being close to the stage those low frequences made my guts feel like they were falling out. Did get a good look at the usual stage set also -- seems they set their equipment on a Victorian table with a really nice paisley tablecloth (who said they didn't have taste?) and Bennett was dressed like something out of the Story of O. They did repeat that mike-cord entanglement trick, but two more songs from Asceticists and Philip plays "Tit Pulp". Whatever happened to Mary Dowd? Bennett has to be the most charismatic performer I've ever got to see! And even the hands-in-the-air bit at the end seemed less stagey...