The Rio Theatre
Vancouver, British Columbia
Sure, I've written about Best Coast, Jack White/the White Stripes and Jesus and Mary Chain a lot, but I actually rarely write about my favourite artists. That's because I usually have the greatest difficulty articulating exactly how the artists that move me the most move me the way they do.
Hawaii-born, Japan-bred, Baltimore-based guitarist Dustin Wong is one of those artists. I've seen live videos of Dustin before, so I knew he was going to be great - interesting, even - but I didn't think he was going to steal the show; after all, looped music, especially by a solo musician, can get pretty repetitive, especially since most loop-based songs start with the same slow layering process. But Dustin utilized so many different sounds and playing styles throughout his fifty-minute set - the most delicate finger-picking; open chord strumming; muted picking to create plinking, percussive notes; low, thuddy, percussive notes; slides; straight-up shredding and sudden intentional stutters and stops, all filtered through a fire-hazard platter of effect pedals - that there wasn't a single dull moment while he was onstage.
As I watched Dustin, leaning forward in my seat with my eyes transfixed on him the entire time, mouth often ajar in utter entranced awe, I wondered what it must be like to be someone like him: how does someone like Dustin see and hear the world? Is his head filled with intricate, ethereal soundscapes all day, providing his life with an endless soundtrack that would make having a bad day impossible? Just watching his body movements - sometimes rocking, often swaying, almost always with his eyes closed - I could tell music just pours out of the guy, and we aren't hearing a quarter of it because he only has so many hands, so many fingers, so many pedals and so many strings.
And flow the music did: even with intentional stutters and stops, all of his songs immediately segued into one another. Not only did the lack of breaks afford few appropriate opportunities to applaud (we the audience actually didn't applaud once while he played), but his performance was one of those that is so captivating, the audience doesn't want to so much as let out a clap or whisper a sound until the whole performance is over, for fear of interrupting (tainting, even) the spectacle. But when it ended, man, we erupted. We gave Dustin all of our energy we had in return for his, but he deserved far more than we could give him.
One would never imagine that Dustin Wong's elaborate compositions - his symphonies - exist in someone as unassuming and beyond shy as him (he said nothing all night except in nervously introducing himself and thanking the Mountain Goats before his set and quickly and humbly tweeting "Thank you" afterwards). They ought to come from older, more experienced individuals who've spent years and years plying their crafts, not a kid in Cons and a tight, cream-coloured sweater with a cartoon owl on it.
But fuck looks. Dustin Wong is one of the most inventive young minds in music today. And that he's so young (or at least he looks so young) means fans can expect many more years of amazing music from him to come. If Dustin continues to evolve the way he has, such as with his increasingly prominent drum samples, vocal "waaaaaa-AAAAAAaaaaahhhhhh"s and yelps of varying pitches and other primal vocal gymnastics (all which he masterfully incorporated into his current style), he's bound to crowd everyone's radar sooner or later.
No comments:
Post a Comment