The Lab to Present Two “Bleeding Edge” Groups

Events at The Lab are usually announced through the weekly Bleeding Edge articles. However, The Lab put out advance information about a concert taking place next month; so it seemed desirable to allow readers to take advantage of the “early warning.” The program will present two highly adventurous sets, one by visitors and the other by local talent.

Kim Gordon and Bill Nace (photograph by David Black, courtesy of The Lab)

The visitors will be Body/Head, an experimental electric guitar duo, whose members are Kim Gordon and Bill Nace. Gordon also provides vocal work, and just about every sound they make involves some form of electronic manipulation. Gordon originally established herself as a member of Sonic Youth; and Coming Apart, Body/Head’s debut album, amounted to a continuation of her work in the rock genre. However, in the years following that first release in 2013, the pair has moved into the far more adventurous territory of free improvisation based on “lexical” building blocks of sonorous “objects” and “instances.” Their most recent album, No Waves released in 2016, amounts to a document of extended improvisations. Performance has thus transmogrified from a sequence of discrete songs into a single multi-movement composition organized around a slow-moving narrative.

The local group consists of two performers in Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase. (The name of the group consists of the four German nouns for fear, bunny, pepper, and nose.) The group first established itself through tape collage work and then ventured into musique concrète. Now they do small-band performances involving spontaneous improvisations. At this particular concert the “small band” will consist of guitarist Chris Cooper, also working with electronics, and Jessica Goddard utilizing more advanced technologies.

This concert will begin at 9 p.m. on Saturday, July 14. The Lab is located in the Mission at 2948 16th Street. This is a short walk from the corner of Mission Street. This is particularly good for those using public transportation, since that corner provides bus stops for both north-south and east-west travel as well as a BART station. Admission will be $20 and $15 for members. Seats may be reserved through a login Web page for members and a guest registration Web page for others. Doors will open at 8:30 p.m., and it is usually the case that a long line has accumulated before then.