Kinski, Primordial Undermind, The North Magnetic & Cowboy

This night began a bit small. The audience consisted of about five people. Cowboy, one of the openers on the night's bill was relaxed and mellow to say the least. This was due to the lack of people in the foreground and the all around low energy level. However, this lack of pressure promoted the feeling that perhaps we were all at a rehearsal space rather than a rock show. This helped to give Cowboy the comfortability that they at times abandon, enabling them to take their time both individually and as a band to work on content rather than presentation.
Primordial Undermind is a group of super musicians with fast fingers and double beats. Led by Eric Arn (guitar / vocals) this band takes you on a rolling and spacey journey through experimentalism in sound. Both Arn and Brian Smith (Guitar) are astonishingly fast with their hands as is bassist Courtney Cater. Drummers Jared Barron and Matt Martinez work together to better the definition of the drummer. Vanessa Arn plays the Triwave Picogenerator, which I could not possibly begin to tell you the specifics of, but I can say that it makes a lot of really cool sounds and probably takes some kind of technical skill to master.
Kinski, a four-piece band of rock experimentalists - Chris Martin on guitar, Lucy Atkinson on bass, Matthew Reis-Schwartz on guitar and Dave Weeks on drums - is a band that thrives on volume, the kind of volume that pretty much forces one to weave from side to side if not to be knocked down to the ground by the weight of such pressing sounds., despite the crowd turnout that became larger, but certainly not monumental, Kinksi seemed content, or perhaps it was the music filling in the empty spaces of the lobby. Sometimes they played slowly, drawing seconds into minutes, and at other times faster putting a little hop and swivel into the stances and steps of their surveyors.
I had hoped that I might catch The North Magnetic in a state that bordered more on un-inhibited than it did on insanity and exhaust, however, I was surprised to find that the music that they played not only lulled me into a place somewhere in-between sleep and bliss, but kept me standing and enthralled with the music they were making. Kelly Bauman (guitar / vocals) never ceases to blow me away with his amazing voice and the intuition of his guitar. Conrad (bass) is forever a pro, Casey is still the best drummer in Chico and Dan Greenfield seems to sense the music he plays rather than simply hear it.
- Haley Hughes

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