Post-prog math rock meets art

The room is empty save for a four-sided tower of milky-transparent plastic covered with various paintings, drawings and words. The audience files in slowly, circling the tower, examining the individual pieces, stepping back to view the tower as a whole.

A man in a paint-spattered jumpsuit hands me a card that reads: We have captured the only known Hellas. (We have named them Spencer & Zach.) We want their performance to be as enjoyable as possible for everyone, including the animals. What follows is a list of 10 rules, ranging from “no flash photography” to “do not attempt to rescue or release the animals” to “do not wear red in the front row.”

Then the lights go out. In the pitch black that follows the room falls silent for a moment. The crowd shuffles nervously. And then the rifle shot of a snare drum begins the explosion that is math/postrock duo Hella, its explosive jerking rhythm coming from inside the plastic tower.

The vision is the work of Studio 301, a UC Davis art collective featuring the talents of Tim Tinker, Olivia Coelho, Al Roundtree and Ryan Horn. “It’s a new way to experience art and music,” Tinker explains. “No one in this area is doing anything like this.”

As the show progresses, the artists (all wearing jumpsuits) race around the perimeter of the tower, tearing pieces of art off the walls, allowing the audience to gain an increasingly better view of Hella’s performance inside. About midway through the performance, the artists go into a frenzy, deconstructing their own construction with violence, at last tearing down the plastic walls themselves in a haze of red light. Hella’s performance continues in a pile of artistic rubble and plastic.

Studio 301’s project is a reminder of how stagnant the standard music shows tend to be—not just in Sacramento but everywhere. So often audiences are offered three loud bands at a bar, essentially the same formula that has been in place since juke joints started hopping in the 1940s. Cary Rodda has overcome some of this formula with his periodic theme nights at Old Ironsides. Let’s hope more of this takes place as it always makes for a more interesting evening than the typical fare, even if the process itself is sometimes touch and go.

it felt like Sacramento had a bona-fide math-rock scene, what with the city boasting both Hella and Ent. The sad rumor is that Ent did not perform at The Swords Project/Windsor for the Derby show at the Capitol Garage on July 12 because the band has broken up. Reason: Drummer Ian is off to school in Berkeley.

Stepping in for Ent at the show was Electrogroup, a local indie-rock/shoegazer trio. My thumbnail sketch: a decent act that suffers from the whispery vocals and absurdly distorted guitars that got old a month after My Bloody Valentine released Loveless in 1991. Not bad, just boring. A shame, because the rhythm section is stellar.

jazz festival, it is sometimes difficult to uncover much of an ongoing jazz scene in Sacramento. Jazz fans may be interested to learn that they can drive up the hill on July 20th to enjoy improvisations on Monk, Ellington, Davis, Rollins and others as the Nevada County Arts Council in Grass Valley celebrates the inaugural season of the Nevada County Jazz Camp with a concert. Call (530) 271-5955 for more information.