TRS-80, Thavius Beck, ModWheelMood at the Alterknit Lounge

I have been to many shows at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood but I had never been to a show at the alterknit lounge at the Knitting Factory. The alterknit lounge is a shack, so I was shocked when I walked in to the club and basically was on the stage. For the astounding cost of $7.00 I enjoyed a trio of great acts. I had seen ModwheelMood a few times before at the Key Club, Chain Reaction, and the Viper Room and it is always a great show. ModwheelMood usually consists of Alessandro Cortini/Pelle Hillstrom as a two man electronic operation. As a synth fan, I appreciate some of the synths that the band has brought on stage. Some examples include a Korg MS-20, Nord Modular, and my personal favorite a custom EAR Performance synth that was custom built for Alessandro. Alessandro has a awesome moonlighting job as the touring keyboardist of Nine Inch Nails which automatically meets the qualifications of a show worth going to see. Apparently Pelle was in England recording so the show turned out to be Alessandro alone on stage with the Nord Modular and a sampler. He did an excellent job layering samples while stomping on his Line 6 Delay pedal to fill out the sound. The tunes are very radiohead like with angelic like vocals. Check out his ep "Enemies and Immigrants". Thavius Beck was up next and after doing some research was impressed with his resume. He has worked with Saul Williams and Trent Reznor on producing Saul's new album. Armed with a AKAI MPC 1000 and a Roland SP 404, Thavius rocked the house. He would trigger a sample of drums or piano and layer other samples other them with a good groove and continue to switch them out to keep things interesting. Thavius was received very well and I picked up his new CD. TRS-80 came up next and put on an impressive show as well. They had a projection screen with various images as well a live drum set and a keyboardist. They played a great set with most songs off their album "Mystery Crash". I also snapped a picture of their keyboard setup on the way out. Overall...a good night of electronic music.