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Dereck Donohue

On Sunday August 26th,  Amoeba Berkeley was treated to an incredible instore, one that probably left more then one customer confused, irritated, converted  --or possibly all those together. Two heavy
hitters from the noise underground: John Wiese of Sissy Spacek as well as a Sunn(((O)) collaborator and C. Spencer Yeh of Burning Star Core.

A small group came out for the performance, but we were dedicated. The Experimental section was packed with people bumping into each other: definitely a rare sight on a Sunday afternoon.

John Wiese was up first with appeared to be some kind of copper tubing tonebar. The volume was very good. I was afraid that these two gentleman would be forced to turn down, but they were allowed to perform at a really good volume. Crackles, rattles and abrupt stops to jangle the cobwebs out of the skull; at times the set would be building up and then take a right turn to some other sound. The whole set used sounds you don't normally hear and this is where the power came from.

Up next was C. Spencer Yeh on violin. He started by lying the instrument flat on the table and creating a muted churning sound with his hands. Then he put a little handheld fan on the strings and began to loop a drone. He allowed the piece to build before he picked up the violin. Instantly he went into an incredible series of scales, and modes that would make most classically trained musicians gape in awe. Slowly, descending up the neck he turned the  bow to give it a harshness that didn't exist prior.

Staying very close to the bridge he began to loop the sound of the bow being pushed into the strings, and after the loop began he picked up another violin bow. Now, using two bows across the strings to create a drone on one and the other bow was used to create some unsettling sounds. This escalated into a wall of sound without any use of effect pedals. He gently eased out of the piece and the room fell back to the sound of shoppers.

Unfortunately, they ran out of time: the Wiese/Yeh collaboration would have to wait till later that night at The Compound in San Francisco. Their collaboration later that night was awesome and it was possibly the show of the year, with Slow Children and Oakland's mighty Deathroes.