One of the Greatest Musical Experiences of My Life

[Original_Name]

Have you ever had an experience brought on by art that is so incredible that you have no idea how to express your appreciation? How to fully communicate the feeling that it provided you? An experience that leaves you staring blankly into space randomly after you come home, come down, come back to? A band called Spelling Bee from St. Louis gave me that when they played at my local punk club in Nashville called Little Hamilton's. Here's the best I was able to describe it to my friend Ezra:

Ezra
hey man. how was the show?

3:01amMe
I'm afraid to be honest because I don't want to make anyone feel bad for missing it.

3:01amEzra
hahaha

that good?

i wanted to go

but i feel sick.

3:02amMe
Mind if I tell you a story, Ezra, or would it be better to leave you blisfully ignorant?

3:02amEzra
hahaha go ahead!

3:04amMe
Imagine you're at Little Hamilton's, listening to a tremendously good Slayer/DRI/Articles of Faith inspired thrash band, and you see a little Asian girl who's about 4'10 tops, and you say to your friend in complete innocence, "I can't believe a girl that young is here," and laugh at her presence a little bit.

3:04amEzra
bahaha

then skank on her face, right?

3:05amMe
Imagine now that said thrash band has concluded their set, and you come back in for the next band -- turns out that that tiny girl is the front-woman for a two-piece act called Spelling Bee, and she's now changed into a bizarre dress, with plastic flowers laced around it, dangling from the hem.

3:08amMe
She pulls out her guitar, and she absolutely blows you into another dimension with her synthesis and juxtoposition of jazz, blues, and progressive rock weaving from soft, touching progressions to more intense, striking chords. Amongst this beautiful playing are interludes of absolutely brutal screaming hardcore vocals which do not come across as contrived, but rather an intricately woven musical fabric of challenging and stimulating music, held in place by the tremendous rhythm of their exceptionally talented drummer.

3:09amEzra
*bonr

3:12amMe
Now imagine that during a solo of one of these songs, said tiny Asian girl with the voice so thunderous that it defies all anatomical explanation finds a deep groove within a synthesis of genres so deep it could only be described as a genre of its very own -- I closed my eyes and just felt the tremendous cornucopia of synaesthetic emotion this apparent Goddess of music was producing. I peeked for a moment -- everyone in the venue -- the sweaty, obnoxious, beer stained punk patrons of Little Hamilton's were all standing dead still, with their eyes shut, heads weaving to align themselves with this slab of utter perfection oozing out of the speakers.

3:16amMe
I close my eyes once more. Allow her to let me drift away. Suddenly, incredible, screeching avant-garde notes explode out of a saxophone that this girl seemingly spawned out of nowhere while we had all forfeited our eyesight to the music. All at once, abruptly snapped out of hypnosis, the punks look at eachother, wide-eyed, then smile and begin to thrash their fucking hearts out to some of the most insane and impressive fucking hardcore punk saxophone playing ever conceived. In a way, it almost seemed disrespectul to respond to such unhumanly incredible art in such a base way, but I feel like everyone there had to show her as soon as possible how appreciative they were of this little Asian post-hardcore front-woman for providing them with a bonafide transient experience. Also, I honestly feel as though there was no feasible human reaction to it -- we just had to pick the one that LOOKED the most expressive.

The show ends, and she is embraced by members of the audience.

It was one of the greatest musical experiences I've ever had in my life.

3:17amEzra
thats badass. i wish i hadnt missed it

3:17amMe
Understatement. I'll buy you some ice cream, champ.

[ProfessorK]

I need to hear them. That sounds amazing.

I'm jealous.

EDIT: Found them Online. I'm sure live is far more groundbreaking, but even here they sound great. I wish they had an album!

[Original_Name]

They do, it's called "Sweet Dreams, Strange Animal". I won't give away the meaning behind that, as it becomes apparent with the packaging, but I'm sure you can order it. They have MySpace and Facebook pages, and I'm sure they'd be willing to ship you out a copy. The album experience isn't as great as the live -- it's more of a reminder of what you saw, haha. Their best song, which I described in more detail in the OP, is called Omelettes, seemed much fuller live. Still, although it doesn't recreate the live experience, I'd recommend picking up the album -- only marred by the fact that I saw them live. DEFINITELY make it a point to see them live if they come through, though.

[plasticnerves]

http://apoprecords.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... range.html

^full length album just released three weeks ago

[einzelherz]

Sounds pretty awful.

[AppleQueso]

If that song on their myspace is from the album, then I can definitely imagine they'd sound a lot better live. That recording quality leaves a lot to be desired. I did enjoy the song itself, for what its worth.

[Jrecee]

I went to the apop records myspace and "listened" to all the songs on there. Uh. . . interesting?

[Original_Name]

Yeah, those recordings don't recreate their live sound. I'm really glad I picked up the album because I like weird stuff like that anyway, but their performance was a very different animal than those recordings.

EDIT!!: 666 POSTS!!! BWAHAHAHA! Who knows how long I'll hold out before posting again!?

[MrPopo]

I just got back from Rush, which was completely amazing. Not quite trance-like as your concert seemed to be, but some good old fashioned prod rock and the most talented drummer alive. The man's nearly 60 and he can drum faster (and more creatively) than most of the the current generation of musicians.

[J T]

I just got back from Rush, which was completely amazing. Not quite trance-like as your concert seemed to be, but some good old fashioned prod rock and the most talented drummer alive. The man's nearly 60 and he can drum faster (and more creatively) than most of the the current generation of musicians.

I used to be involved in drum line and in the percussion ensemble in high school. There were deadly battles over who was the better drummer, Neil Peart or Carl Palmer. I was on the side of Carl Palmer, though Neil Peart is definitely skilled. My actual favorite drummer is Elvin Jones, but I'm more Jazz than Rock. Tony Williams is also pretty badass.