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Dissonance like a wolf satellite

KGFREEZE howls and screams through their new release Initiator

There is something about a performer that can get out on stage, in front of strangers and friends and bare it all. Let the energy that fuels them become visceral and visible. The pain, effort, and strength of vulnerability all dancing in unison as you watch joy appear and fade on the performers face. I remember in the late 90's watching Sonic Youth. Lee Renaldo was jumping around behind Thurston Moore smiling and singing along. He was so happy. It is infectious when you see it. Watching someone become joy doing something they are good at, and making it seem effortless.

There was a band when I was in college, Buckhorn, that played a John Zorn meets Rancid kind of rock'n'roll jazz. If you transcribed what they were doing, you would think it was a complicated avant-garde jazz score, full of pretense & inaccessibility. But seeing them play, Ches & Jake & Dana would laugh with each other jumping up and down, in a groove all their own and making music so much bigger than the sum of their parts. And it was rock'n'roll. It was dirty. It was complicated, but you couldn't feel that. You just felt moved and happy.

I've seen KGFREEZE frontman Kyle Gervais, get so into the performance, his eyes went bloodshot. Of course, he was Iggy Pop for a Clash concert, but he went down to his tighty-whiteys and tried to pick a fight with an audience member. He was Iggy Pop. He might not be as obnoxious as himself, but his heart is still in it just as much. And the performance he gives is still as riveting. He may even still get bloodshot, but he's backed by his brother on drums kicking the heartbeat and the dissonance played by Nate Carl has your teeth shaking. But that may be the thump of Jason Engler on bass. The tension created by notes, slipping in and out of harmony. It hurts at first, then you're begging for more. And it looks like Kyle might hurt himself, but you can't look away. Then the song ends. It was only two minutes, and they are off running into another. Then the set ends, and you are left, weeping, sweaty, panting. You're standing in your tighty-whiteys in the middle of the dance floor howling at the wolf satellite, begging for more.

But don't take my word for it.

They have a new album coming out. Initiator is available on their website, and you can see them this weekend at Portland House of Music. You should; you won't be disappointed.

http://www.kgfreeze.com/

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