LA Show

[Ductor, Dan [NEUUS]]

Well, I pretty much agree with Chuck about the show.  The Five Fifteen set
was good, but a little
to pop sounding for my taste.  Spinal Tap certainly came to my mind.
However, they did play a great
rendition of Silver Machine with Nik on sax and vocals.

Just last night I finished watching the video tape that I shot.  Overall, it
was not a bad shoot!   I was hoping to do
some hand held camera shots, but my battery died, so I ended up video taping
from the mixing board area.

The show was amazing, like Chuck has already stated.  The visuals really
flowed with the music.  Many thanks
to Rob Jacobs for the amazing technicolor films!!

I do believe that the band backing up Nik was essentially Farflung with Len
Del Rio.

I should be talking to Len soon.  Hopefully he'll fill me in on when Anubian
Lights will play again.

Space is Deep,

Dr. Dan

        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Chuck Rosenberg [SMTP:Chuckrecs at AOL.COM]
        Sent:   Thursday, March 09, 2000 4:29 PM
        To:     Multiple recipients of list BOC-L
        Subject:        NIK: LA Show

        Hey. Well, here's a quick review from me, for whoever is interested.
First I
        met Doug Pearson at his friend's place in LA. We got to the venue
too late to
        catch Subarachnoid Space. Met Dan Ductor in the pool-room. I was
already
        pretty buzzed when he came up to me later and said "Hey, Chuck, this
is Len".
        I thought he said "Lynn" and just sort of sat there staring like an
idiot.
        Then I noticed the beard/mustache, put two and two together (or
whatever) and
        realized it was Len Del Rio. Then I stood up, shook his hand and
tried not to
        embarrass him w/adulation. But I finally got to tell him personally
how much
        I liked his Zero Gravity album, the last Anubian Lights album, etc.
He talked
        mostly about how he didn't like Cleopatra and intended to move on,
        label-wise. Very nice guy.
        Then 5:15 came on. Keith Henderson made me a CD-R of various bands
recently,
        one of which was the song they kicked off their set with--"Starship
Dark
        Sun". The hookey riff caught my attention when I first heard it. The
next
        time I heard it, it struck me as being kinda poppy for space-rock.
The night
        before the concert, I glanced over an old issue of Aural Innovations
and its
        5:15 interview, which perplexed me even more. By the time of the
concert, I
        seriously had my doubts; Doug's friend Doug kept turning to me,
saying
        "Spinal Tap". Exactly. Finnish pop-psyche style. Nik came out during
the last
        couple tunes to play sax. Oh well... I came hoping to see Nik's
Space Ritual
        and that's finally what we got. At the end of the set, Grenas gave
me the
        play-list, so here it is:

        Ghost Dance
        Master of the Universe
        Watching the Grass Grow
        D-Rider
        Sonic Attack
        Ejection
        Soul Herder
        Opa-Loka 2000
        St. Anthony's Fire (Farflung tune, I assume from a recent album)
        Utopia
        Brainstorm
        Encore: Do That (which was never done)

        I guess by the time they finished BS, it was 2am, so they had to
split
        despite the nice reception from the tiny crowd.
        Excellent. I can't think of anything else to say--if you've seen 'em
or heard
        the albums, that's what went down--no surprises. The sound/acoustics
were
        perfect. I just wonder who the other musicians were, other than Nik,
Len and
        Grenas (I didn't recognize the other guys, and Nik never announced
the band
        members).
        Dan Ductor video-taped the gig, and I'm curious to see/heard how
that turns
        out, however at the same time kind of dread watching my-self
bouncing around
        w/hands in the air like an ass at front-center (the stage wasn't
much
        elevated from the floor). Maybe Dan managed to truncate me.

        Maybe Doug or Dan can offer some more technical observations (I was
pretty
        blitzed, too, so maybe they could offer more accute observations in
general).

        Anyway--It was great to meet you guys. Can't wait 'till next time.
Anubian
        Lights apparently gig there pretty regularly, so maybe Dan and I
(and any
        other SoCalers lurking out there) can get together more often.

        Chuck