Minibeast

Providence and the parking is easy. I’ve always liked AS 220. It has a community art space vibe and decent sound. Special kudos to Roland the attentive and accommodating sound guy.

Crow Follow keeps the opening set short and on point. They lighten up their noir escapades with a couple of newer tunes. "Doombuggy" was originally a collaboration with Linnea’s Garden. It takes a catch, herky-jerky look at diversity relations in a time of Covid. As the title implies, the second newbie, "I’m in Love with You" is a downright slice of power pop froth.

Kamyar Arsani - Time Is Fire

Time Is Fire is up from Washington D.C. They sound like late-period Talking Heads if David Byrne had met up with a whirling dervish on the desert rather than with a man with a big coat in NYC and then hung out with Exposure era Fripp rather than Eno. They are impassioned, angular, and danceable. Lead singer Kamyar Arsani sports a cat scratch post fez and flowing tunic. He spins and twists and bends his limbs. He throws in scatological yelps and barks. The band lay down a post-punk vibe that rises and falls with Arsani’s lyric. The band makes a compelling clatter. Jeff Barsky’s Fripp math runs and short blasts of noise warp into psych when they meet up with Matt Perrone on another guitar. Kai Filipczak busts out an occasional bass break and drummer Jim Thomson keeps the poly in the rhythm.

Peter Prescott - Minibeast

Minibeast - what a glorious slab of noise. Niels LaWhite on bass lays down a finger torturing, Jah Wobble conjuring, dubbed up low end that helps keep the whole from fragmenting. Keith Seidel keeps the drum propulsion pedal floored. He fills spaces that may not actually exist. He may have three arms. He makes ample use of that Burundi beat to give his fantastic Moony bludgeoning fills a moment to rest. Ok, I want candy.

Keith Seidel - Minibeast

LaWhite’s and Seidel’s efforts lay out a canvas for Peter Prescott’s brilliant cacophony. Prescott rides the spaceways with the best of them. He howls, samples, loops, plays chucka chucka plastic block, and strafes his guitar strings. He runs it all through a stomp box blender and spits out a stunning, mind-bending, psychedelic noise. You can almost hear Sun Ra, “Hey man, let me sit in and play some of that crazy funk-punk space shit with you and your boys!”

Niels LaWhite - Minibeast

Keith Seidel - Minibeast

Peter Prescott - Minibeast

Jeff Barsky - Time Is Fire

Kamyar Arsani - Time Is Fire

Kamyar Arsani - Time Is Fire

Kai Filipczak - Time Is Fire

Kamyar Arsani - Time Is Fire

Kamyar Arsani - Time Is Fire