SIGNUM: Experimental Festival

At the show, I eventually break out my trusty tape recorder. First I ask the fellow in the thin-rimmed spectacles why he attended the festival. "Because they didn’t ask me to perform!" he replies with a laugh. I ask him to spell out his name into the recorder. "M-A-R-K-H-O-S-L-E-R," he replies. Here I’ve been babbling about experimental music with a member of Negativland without even knowing it. I’m embarrassed, but he’s just amused. In a nice way.

Nuggets of Thimbletronium

Two guys set up a laptop, projection screen, and assorted props for the next act. It looks promising; after all, how can you go wrong when your costumes are a bright Hawaiian shirt and a white jumpsuit? Evolution Control Committee have come all the way from Columbus, Ohio, with an array of quality performance pieces and toys.

The first schtick involves "Napster Nuggets" – an unconscionably funny bit of culture jamming that starts with downloading sound files created by the average Joe when he first tests his new PC’s microphone or sound software. The ECC representative in the blinding Hawaiian shirt has us giggling the instant he starts playing these nuggets, which resemble shower singing and homemade Nirvana karaoke.

Mark, in the white jumpsuit, takes over. With hair flying around his face, long goatee on his chin, and horn-rimmed glasses resting on his nose, he looks like a cross between Colonel Sanders and a classic Mad Scientist. He takes us on a vaudevillian romp through weird songlets and assemblages of comedic samples, many triggered by the thimbles on his fingers – er, I mean, triggered by The Thimbletron, whose development stems from the ECC’s discovery of an entirely new element. Yes, that’s right: Thimbletronium.

This is Saturday’s most polished set, and possibly its funniest. A full house of audience members claps and hoots appreciatively. Aerick Duckhugger smiles and thanks everyone, assuring them that the one and only Steve Fisk will be on shortly.

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