Show Review – Dead Animal Assembly Plant @ The Tonic Lounge 01.13.12 (Portland, OR)
Michael Kurt (mind.in.a.box – Revalations )
Dead Animal Assembly Plant, to say the least, is a very very strong new comer in the Portland music scene. Only about a year old (live anyway,) they have already solidified a scaled performance and are getting some recognition for their theatrics. There are a lot of elements that go into the music itself. A lot of very odd elements that really shouldn’t work. There’s a weird Charles Manson camp psychedelic feeling, and tambourine breakdowns sometimes, and guitar, and moog, and real drums, and lots of implied gross. The show is sporadic and inciting to watch – someone you definitely do not want to go on before you do.
That being said, that was the mistake of the show organizer. Dead Animal Assembly Plant opened the show with a sprawlingly glorious 45 minute set. First of all, an opening band should not have a 45 minute set, ever. Secondly, when organizing a show, even on this small of a scale, you need to really consider – Well, shit… will the opening band make the other bands look bad? If the answer is yes, then you have a problem.
DAAP opened up slow and then got directly to the point with masks, scrolls, dead girls, dismembered intestinal tracks, and a previously mentioned tambourine breakdown. It was interesting to watch the crowd’s reaction to a lot of the things that were going on. A majority of the crowd was there to see them, and they knew it.
A confident singer and fun antics go a long way, especially in Portland. The stranger, more theatric, obscure shows do well here.
I can honestly say, that with the right promotional marketing, production quality, and support, Dead Animal Assembly Plant could easily be the next Marilyn Manson or NIN. Now you might have just cringed a little bit there, but that was a huge compliment. Marilyn Manson was the big name figurehead of my generation, period. And despite your opinion on it, he had millions of fans around the world and sold billions of CDs. I think that they could honestly reach that level with the right drive.
This review provided by: mind.in.a.box – Revalations – Michael Kurt