There's a lot of room for accidents in Terrior Bute's sound. For the Milwaukee group's outdoor performance in front of a vegan-friendly greasy spoon in Austin yesterday, their spastic synth-pop was accented by static, feedback and loud, uncontrollable pops from their equipment's questionable electrical connections, as well as the sharp thumps the microphone made whenever their singer slung the microphone over his shoulder to play his keyboard with both hands.
The most disconcerting sound of the set, though, was the loud, bassy grunt his synthesizer made when he wiped his blood off of it. Midway through the set, he had developed a pretty nasty nose bleed—blame it on the dry Texas heat, perhaps—but didn't see it necessary to stop the show. Instead he played his keyboard with one hand, pressing a cloth to his face and microphone to his mouth with the other, an imprecise set-up that smeared blood all over his face, hands, teeth and instruments (you had to feel bad for their tour mates Big Fun 4Ever, who had lent him the microphone he soiled). His red face would have been a grotesque image if he didn't look like he was having so much fun. The band was so into their set he probably could have severed off a finger and kept going, and their enthusiasm spread to the crowd, which danced along happily (even if some in the front rows flinched when the singer reached out his contaminated hand toward them).
