Concert review: Octopus Project Present Hexadecagon at South Side Music Hall (November 18)

All the lights, all the colored wires, all the projectors, all the weird instruments -- it all worked.

Octopus Project at South Side Music Hall in Dallas (November 19)

I had a very optimistic feeling going into last night’s Octopus Project gig at the South Side Music Hall. It’s not everyday that you get to experience something new. Something exciting. I have seen OP before. Many times before actually. One of my favorite memories of this band was watching them take photos of the audience at one of their particularly wild shows. The crowd was so enthusiastic that the band wanted to document the moment. A band that thinks and cares this much will always get a little more consideration from me. The feelings of wanting and receiving were on full display last night. I wanted to see something new last night and I did.

The vibe of last night was very un-typical in comparison to most shows I’ve been to. The crowd’s size and mentality were also perfect for last night’s show. These were fans of OP for sure but beyond that the art crowd showed up as well as the tech-geeks. All of these people were waiting for the same thing. Was this show really as different and spectacular as promised? Is it really a perfect melding of performance art, technology, and good old-fashioned rock and roll?

In the middle of the room was a makeshift stage with as much electronic equipment, wires, instruments, lights, laptops, and projectors that you could possibly fit on it. Towering above were two huge white sheets that made sort of little tent above the crowd and the band. The set up looked important without anyone on it.

Solo project New Fumes went on before OP and the set was atmospheric to say the least.

A performance art piece more than anything with natural sounds and very trippy fractals and scenes being shot up onto the tent via projector. It was impressive. Saying that something is ‘for mushrooms/acid trips’ degrades the product. That being said, it was the absolute definition of trippy. The feline-masked New Fumes crafted a slow, dirgy, sometimes beat less set that melded the natural and mechanical worlds. It was more DMA than HOB, i.e. not a show for everyone but one that I really enjoyed.

Octopus Project took the stage and looked really excited. The look of having worked long and hard on a project that they were finally going to unleash. Just as excited as anxious. Hoping that tonight works like they imagined it would. This show was fantastic and will be ripped off by everyone. It looked good, it sounded good, it felt good. It actually gave off a vibe of its own. It seemed like something the Flaming Lips would be a little jealous of.

With all that foaming of the mouth out of the way, it honestly shouldn’t have worked. The show was very complicated to say the least, so much so that the band actually had notes on what settings the equipment should be set to before each song. But it was so well thought out and so well rehearsed that it was just bang on. All the lights, all the colored wires, all the projectors, all the weird instruments -- it all worked. They even figured out how to manipulate the color of the lights with the theremin. The higher the pitch, the brighter the lights.

The band was truly excited to be finally playing this show in front of people and they were even more excited that it worked so well. Last night felt like a theater premiere. Raw energy, performance, and most of all ingenuity and a dedication to the future were what everyone at the South Side Music Hall experienced last night. You will get to go see this show again. Recapturing what happened last night, however, might be impossible.