01/23/08: Laromlab/robotcowboy/The Viirus @The Side Bar

[ess]

Wednesday, January 23, 2008
@ The Side Bar
15 SW 2nd St.
Gainesville
9:00pm / $5 / 18+

Laromlab
robotcowboy
The Viirus

[ess]

Adam, I know you're working on a flyer for this but I just wanted to at least get something up on GBdC for you in the meantime (see above flyer). It's based on the template flyer Laromlab has on his myspace profile.

We can upload your version as well... twice as many flyers = twice the likelihood of them popping up in rotation. And I'll replace the above with yours once it's ready to go.


p.s. I think that's supposed to be you with the Atari t-shirt.

[the_viirus]

very soon.
it just needs ink and a scan.
will probably finish it tonight or this weekend.

i am really happy with the outcome too.
i need to draw more often.

[ess]

The flyer I made is now up on GBdC, as well as this one that (I believe) was sumbitted by the venue:

[ess]

This is apparently what robotcowboy's live show looks like:

[ironing]

HELL YES!

[Dementia]

He kinda looks like the robot from FLCL

[vainangel]

He kinda looks like the robot from FLCL

I kinda thought that is what he was going for.

[adikt]

do you Fooly Cooly?

[jkndrkn]

I'll be there ^_^

[ess]

This was a weird show.

The Viirus started his set at 10:35pm, with only myself and John David in attendance. His lighting rig was busted so he was unable to give us his (new) dynamic light show unfortunately... but his lights did stay on which was nice. Because of the teensy audience, his show was more casual than usual. This was fine, although I would have preferred less between-song banter.

I really liked what I heard, and he showcased a few new beat-heavy electrotech songs, along with some of his "hits". The second one, with the "Set Me Free" chorus, was my favorite. The vocal style and processing he used on this really worked well. The set ended with a brief/unfinished cover of "Photographic" which made so much sense... I want to hear more.

Chris Cline joined us, along with maybe around 10 or so bar "regulars". The venue was completely empty otherwise, and the entirety of downtown was quiet and unpopulated. The soudguy in the meantime had disappeared altogether and Adam, Brandon (aka Laromlab) and Dan (aka robotcowboy) had to run their own sound for the most part.


robotcowboy's performance was unlike anything I had ever seen before, ever. I felt a bit embarrassed and ashamed that only a small handfull of us were there to witness it! He was a completely self-contained one-man band, who played and triggered all of his music utilizing methods I had never encountered.

He wore a red & grey jumpsuit, with an engineered (red) welding mask affixed to his head that had patterned blinky red lights washing back and forth across his "face". Inside was a lattice of wiring, and a processed microphone which he sang into. Numerous power cables, peripheral wiring, and sound cables were interlaced over his body - all serving a specific purpose and not for "looks". A long keypad was attached to his left wrist/forearm, which he "played" when each song required its input. A semi-transparent small box with 1-3 buttons was slung over his right shoulder. When he pressed the button(s), a very synthetic computer voice stated "Ready" (I think?) and pre-programmed beat and rhythm sequences were triggered. He played some sort of (modified?) electronic guitar which I was not familiar with, that had it's own series of knobs, buttons and an interface pad. When played, the guitar signal was sent through various effects, sometimes sounding like a fuzzy warm electric guitar, chiptune-y beats, and other bleepbloopy noises.

The songs were very structured and melodic, in a complex yet simple listening sense. His name, "robotcowboy", really fit the type of music he was playing. Performing amongst the limited audience, lengths of plugged-in and taped-together wiring trailed behind him. The pieces varied from short chiptune-rock blasts, to fuzzed-out 8-Bit video game scores, to vocalized Suicide/Jesus And Mary Chain sludge. I truly felt I was witnessing "The Future". Wow.


Laromlab took the stage within minutes afterwards, joined by a modified robotcowboy on the floor. This was basically a laptop set and was not very dynamic at all save for the antics of his robot friend.

robotcowboy had transformed himself into a new persona, with an engineered/hollowed-out (red painted) eMac "head". Inside, at chin-level, was an unseen controlling interface which could be triggered by fingertips (buttons?). This "switch" allowed for a repeating 8bit-style projection to be displayed on the monitor's screen. It varied from pixelated patterns (/, \, X, a "face", etc.) to primary Red/Green/Blue/Red squares blinking in sequence on the quartered display.

Laromlab played his laptop and some other processing devices on stage, and released smoke machine smoke on occasion. Reminding me of a futuristic "accordian monkey" robotcowboy danced to every song, extending out onto the audience floor as far as his wiring (ie, "leash") would allow. Their collabortive performance gave the impression that not only was Laromlab controlling the music, but he was also controlling his robot for our dancing pleasure!

Midway through the set things started getting a bit tense. The "regulars" were finding the whole Future Music show overly novel, and a couple of plus-sized young women began attempting to booty-grind into the robotcowboy. I guess in our society this kind of shameless behavior has come to be not only tolerated, but also expected... coupled with utter disregard for invading the performer's "space". Despite the pair's typical pop-culture sluttiness, robotcowboy pushed them away. Squealing in disbelief(!) over their rejection, they headed back toward the safety of the bar where a large male friend shouted across the room, "He must be a faggot!".

Despite this reminder that we were stuck in a room with 20th Century throwbacks, the show went on! robotcowboy danced and danced and danced, while Laromlab finished out his set and politely thanked the audience and venue. True professionals!


Not the worst-attended live electronic/experimental show in Gainesville's history, but definitely a close second. Being poorly promoted by the venue and the performers (two, who had never played Gainesville before), this was not too surprising. In addition, it was on a Wednesday night, two days after a national holiday weekend with way too many shows happening so I imagine folks were already pretty partied out.

It's a real shame too... because this could have been something really amazing and memorable for a lot of people.

[adikt]

i do apologize to viirus for missing this show. it sounds like i would have loved it, and at 10pm I was still saying I wanted to go, but a goddamn busy afternoon overcame me. Your venue description reminds me of the Alias/Astronautalis show I attended there. Astro brought a nice crowd but many left when his show was over, which Alias mixed out of in a live manner, but no one even knew who the guy was. I dunno. The local's actions you describe are just plain fucked up tho. Welcome to the ignorance that is Gainesville.

I would reallylike to see pics & videos of what you are describing Robotcowboy & Laromlab to be doing. There were projections on the screen he had around his head? damn...

[jkndrkn]

There were projections on the screen he had around his head? damn...

He removed the original CRT display and mounted an LCD display in its stead. It seems that he may have written his own VGA monitor controller and interfaced it through a very small and portable compact computer to a playstation controller. He was able to manipulate a series of simple graphics on the monitor attached to his head in this manner.

Such a task might be accomplished with a small-form-factor PC motherboard and case, a low-power processor running a very minimal Linux installation (likely a Debian or Slackware derivative), and an FPGA (for the VGA controller). The device on his right hip sported a huge aluminum heat sink which leads me to believe that this contained the motherboard and processor.

It is clear that the lad was very gifted in the ways of hardware and low-level programming. Enviable ^_^

[jkndrkn]

Oh, he has a whole thesis written on the subject of his performance equipment ^_^

http://www.robotcowboy.com/projects/s20 ... ech_07.pdf

It includes tons of background material on wearable computing, and a very detailed discussion of the purpose and component-level design and function of his gear.

[alGARhythm]

Sad to hear that RobotCowboy and Laromlab were treated with some disregard/disrespeKt in Gainesville. Those kats make good aRt. especially RC. That shit is seriously futuristic.
I had assured them the nite before, that Gainesville should be a much more exciting show than the Orlando event that I played with them on Tuesday at BackBooth.

Although they didn’t get booty-clapped’ on by overweight hip hop chicks while performing at BB.. they did get the some of the same piss-poor turn out, and lack of respect from the venue/staff/city. They couldn’t really get heckled by any one from the crowd because the only 4 people in attendance were a few friends of mine and I believe a friend er 2 of Flashlight Party’s. I mean I know Tuesday aren’t Saturday’s, but 4 people??.. c’mon.. that’s really pathetic in a city of Orlando’s size. There’s well over a million people in the metropolitan area. You have 3 - 4 contemporary artists playing a bill in this city who are on the “tip of the swordâ€

[ironing]

i really wanted to attend but was not able. :( i feel bad that i was not another person in attendance but sometimes there's nothing that can be done about it.

it sounds like i missed out. it sounds like a lot of people did.

[ess]

He removed the original CRT display and mounted an LCD display in its stead. It seems that he may have written his own VGA monitor controller and interfaced it through a very small and portable compact computer to a playstation controller. He was able to manipulate a series of simple graphics on the monitor attached to his head in this manner.

Oh, I forgot to also mention that he had some kind of of visor/goggles which were over his eyes, inside the eMac "head". I think there may have been a camera embedded into the monitor at the top as I saw a small darkish circle on the top rim. He was most probably able to see everything that was going on via the interface between the two components.

[ess]

I wish I had been able to film this show. Watch this for a general idea of what robotcowboy's set was like.

[the_viirus]

my lights shine again.
my lights will shine again.

[ess]

A tour blog for the Gainesville date can be found here:

[quote]The GPS navigator was not able to find any satellites all day, so we had to follow the map the old fashioned way. We arrived at The Sidebar a little before they opened around 7:30pm and set up early. I took the time to fix my monitor helmet and camera. Some emergency surgery and soldering were required, but I now have eyes again. The led mask was fine, I had just forgot to switch on the power the night before.

We played with The Viirus who started up around 10:30pm. His light control box broke down, but his Pro One analog synth and beats were faaaaat. Our sets went well. I ended up pushing some girl who started bouncing on me and Brandon apologized on the pa … later he delivered this memorable quote: “don’t push some girl in a bar full of dudesâ€

[ess]

This was the very last live electronic music show to have happened at The Side Bar.

[ess]

A very bizarre follow-up on this show:

A Very Important Apology from Laromlab!