Sunday 09.21.08: CROOKED COWBOY AND THE FRESHWATER INDIANS ORCHESTRA @ echoplex

Posted by damara - filed in events

Crooked Cowboy & The Freshwater Indians

Next to curtained-off lanes, a seven-piece band spills over a low stage and onto the floor. The band is in the middle of a number, a feisty bit of two-step twang with wordless vocals. At the end of every
verse, a moan of feedback beckons the band to explode into a feverish climax, and just as you think the song must spiral off into abandon, it just as quickly hunkers back down into its tight and menacing shuffle. The song ends, and as the last hit is still wallowing in its lush reverb, the bassist puts down his bass and turns to the MPC sampler sitting on the chair next to him. You barely have time to wonder if a drumbeat or pre-recorded synth loop is imminent before gamelan bells ring out incongruously, ominously, and the band lurches into a martial apocalyptic dirge that sounds like something Ennio Morricone would write after spending 10 years in a Balinese rock cult. The sound. The sound is a very physical thing— immense without being cacophonous, echoing without being murky, possessed of a great and terrible clarity and power. The Freshwater Indians are not a particularly loud band, but they are certainly one you can feel in your chest. – Mean Magazine

@ Echoplex
enter at
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026