|
|
 |
A NEW DAWN FADES performs @ Highwater Saturday, April 26th!
Instrumental Richmond duo wows audiences with their interactive and experimental performances. No stiff limbed scarecrows on stage, the band forces the audience to take an interactive part in the music, throwing out makeshift instruments like pots, bits of sheet metal or car parts, the clamor of which, in no small way, influences the direction of the band’s improvisational pieces. The boundaries between the performer and the audience are further blurred as both musicians often walk among the crowd, playing along with, and conducting the makeshift orchestra. Be warned: at an A NEW DAWN FADES show no unwitting audience member is safe from direct involvement in the performance.
"The last band that evening was A New Dawn Fades. I can’t say when they actually started their set. First there was droning feedback from a guitar. Then percussion instruments began to sound intermittently around the room. A metal sheet rattled in the back like an angry snake. One guy was handed a drumstick and he started beating it against a pillar. After an unsettlingly age of conceptual noise, two individuals convened on the stage.
A guitar and drums was all that was needed. The guitar spoke in an angular tongue. The drums bashed a steady beat. As the act progressed, any artifice unraveled out of the music and it became a cryptic jam session. At times, guitar lines plotted out funky scales that only made sense in reflection. Between songs the drummer harangued the audience. Was he creating a rapport?
A New Dawn Fades played that night like a two-headed monster. It was a hypnotizing experience. As the guitar writhed out shapes in the air, the rhythms created schizoid angles and weird vertices. The band managed to fill the venue more than seemed possible with their two instruments. Noise echoed throughout the room as the set redefined the audience's sense of time.
By the end, one got the unmistakable feeling that A New Dawn Fades’ act was designed to make fun of audience expectations. As the drummer and guitarist left the stage and walked away, the feedback continued. Everyone stood waiting for more. After a long pause of confusion, the drummer started guffawing from amidst the crowd. He had to inform the rest of us that the show was over."
-Daniel Crenshaw (RVAmag.com)
|
