11.26.01 fireside bowl: royal space force / neon hunk / ? :
So Billy from Royal Space Force gives me an email about a show they are playing at the fireside bowl, a real craphole of a venue here in Chicago. It's an old bowling alley. They taped off the lanes and set up a PA in one corner, and horrible punk bands (and sometimes the famed Wesely Willis) play there. Anywho, I'd had r.s.f's cd for awhile and was interested in seeing them live, as well as hitting it off w/ other video game lovin' folk. So we get there and pay the $7 cover! Ouch. I found Billy after being shy for a bit; I've never seen him in person before. Their setup was interesting. Two Nintendos, running the sound selection screen from Ninja Guiden, Maniac Mansion, Megaman and other games. They were hooked up to what looked like a drummachine or sequencer. On the floor they had the audio running through a Playstation which displayed screensaver type imagery that went along w/ the music. All in all a very entertaining set pull of controller pounding, bandmate-disputes and rad racin'
Next up was Neon Hunk. We had no idea what to expect. A long haired, scary guy sat behind on the drumset, and a cute girl in a fuzzy sweater set up an old-skool synth, with fx boxes on top. Pat and I went to drink some free water. When we returned both people had on these flesh-tone masks with huge gaping mouthes, which had what looked like a handkerchief shoved in them. The girl had a red one and the guy a blue on. Then they started playing. Ohhh my. The girl pounded on the keys in various patterns, while the drummer pounded on the drums (in various patters). It was chaotic. Then they started yelling back and forth through crappy microphones (which i assume were under their handkerchiefmouth things). It went "AHHHH!", "AHHBBHHH!", "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!", "BAHHHHHHH!". Here's some bad pictures: Then to continue the weirdness, this band came out all dressed in hunting attire. The singer had on huge antlers, while the other 3 members had camouflage hunting jackets and caps on. I forget what their name was. The music was just more random crap. At one point the singer recited a monologue from an old version of the film Robin Hood. All the while, we'd been hanging out with the famous chicago gameboy duo Mark4. We talked about gameboy music and then stole some cold pizza that was sitting unattended in the back of the fireside. Yummmm.

Tom + Dan = Mark4	Dan	Tom