Photo by Blaine Schultz
Bitchin Bajas
Bitchin Bajas at The Back Room at Colectivo
Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” played on the house sound system at the conclusion of the Bitchin Bajas concert Friday night at Colectivo’s Back Room. If this was, as hinted, the last show at this venue, it was a special one.
Chicago trio Bitchin Bajas played a set of instrumental music based around electronics, keyboards and analogue synthesizers, with alternating whiffs of saxophone and flute from Rob Frye. The barely lit stage served as a sonic laboratory for Cooper Crain, Frye and Dan Quinlivan.
The opening number throbbed and squiggled within a sequence of repeat loops that layered and built in tempo, volume and intensity—eventually decelerating into the next piece. Another tune began with flute and grew in a fashion similar to the previous piece yet evolved in an entirely different manner. There were untold options given the parameters of the generous handful of electronic instruments onstage.
The usual suspects guitar, bass and drums were nowhere in sight—in fact the only percussion seemed to be a set of sleigh bells that were used stealthily.
If you were looking to connect the dots historically, it wasn’t a stretch. One tune opened with queasy pitch shifting, suggesting the trio as children of un-pop music made by the likes of LaMonte Young was the bridge into the land of Terry Riley and Steve Reich.
And it wasn’t all head music. A spritely-tempo, sounded vaguely like laughter, a musical “ha-ha,” while another tune concluded with the sound of helicopters whop-whop-whopping in the distance. When things got grooving, the trio evoked elements of Krautrock aka German psychedelic improvisational music, with Cooper Crain’s left hand anchored deftly on a keyboard while manipulating an analogue synthesizer with his right.
Opening trio Glyders did their part to refract conventional rock. Working within the template of guitar, bass and drums they imaginatively echoed Wire, Neil Young on cough syrup, hinted at Neu! and teased out near-hooks of pop tunes, they suggested melodies and were completely intriguing. Bassist Eliza Weber was a study in even-tempered perpetual motion. Guitarist Joshua Condon wrangled clean sounds from his Telecaster suggesting the intersection of Wilko Johnson and NYC skronk also employed a wah wah pedal for different effects and textures.
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