drwex | We saw Infected Mushroom

There are moments where I listen to music and think "gods, I'm such a stereotypical old fogey but I really liked these guys back when they did X". I understand that musicians change their desires and their styles, but sometimes it's just true that what attracted me to an act fades from its repertoire and I'm left with something that I don't much care for. Not to put too fine a point on it, I rather liked Infected Mushroom when they were doing psy trance - particularly the weird glitchy stuff that Infected Mushroom sort of epitomizes. This sort of thrashy pseudo-industrial stuff they're doing now is... meh.

So there's that. And then there's the theater of the absurd aspects of the sound. Musicians wear earplugs (or various other noise blocking gear) so they won't be deafened by the volume of the sound they're producing that washes over an audience that, if you're me, also wears earplugs in order not to be deafened. And since I haven't yet invested in high-tech noise cancelling doo-dads I'm left with these tiny industrial foam tubes that are extremely effective at blocking... well, sound. In particular, they cause me to fail to be able to hear a great deal of what's being created on stage, when the stage sound is so bloody loud. I utterly fail to see why venues and acts continue to insist on cranking up the volume.

In the case of Infected Mushroom not only was it too loud most of the time, but the mix was such that the vocalist was just in the middle ranges and even for those bits where I didn't have plugs in it was damned hard to hear him. If you don't understand why I think the vocals are key to this act try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJDpXPVFRUo (if you're impatient you can jump ahead to about 2:30)

Yes, the voices are weird, but they're in theme and synch with the weird glitchy music and I think they complement each other perfectly. Remix that so that you couldn't hear the vocals properly and you'd lose 80% of what makes the song interesting (to me, anyway).

Oh, and when I go to a live show I like to watch the stage show. Whoever designed this tour's set thought it was a clever idea to have a set of four extremely powerful ultra-white strobes pointed directly at the audience. My tolerance for having high-powered lights flashed in my eyes is about four seconds. We moved to side-facing seats on the balcony and that helped somewhat, but I spent far too much of the show staring at the insides of my eyelids or the palm of my hand. Seriously, what was the point of that?

I've been listening to Infected Mushroom for over a decade now and this was my first time seeing them live. Also, my last. A shame, really.