60 Watt Kid
Independent - Apr 26, 2008
review by lexicon

Odd. Very odd. And not in a good way. To call it music would be misleading. I'd go as far as to say 60 Watt Kid's performance involved noise: the same crude, tribal-esque drum beats with trite, shout-y spoken word sermons programmed with about six too many echoes. What's worse than being stuck listening to a non-musical, shout-y, masturbatory diatribe? Having to hear it layered with itself over and over again. Oof.

Still, 60 Watt Kid was so farcically bad that it was entertaining. Certainly their fashion was something to ponder: The keyboardist was all 80s with an electric blue sweatshirt with the sleeves cut off and periwinkle shades currently in vogue with high school hipsters and fans of Girl Talk (who are probably the same people).

Meanwhile, the drummer seemed nearly albino, his facial hair giving him an unearthly glow, along with the millions of silver sequins on his hand-sewn vest and matching elephant-head brooch. His five-to-a-pack men's undershirt had a hand-drawn rectangular maze on it in highlighter colors. To top it off, he had on Napoleon Dynamite glasses and a necklace made of what seemed to be Thai Temple Brunch tokens strung together. Finally, and perhaps most oddly, the vocalist was business casual, and the binder clip he had on his shirt collar only further hinted at his other life in a cubicle.

As if the band's self-description weren't enough, allow me to share a few choice lyrics: "And one day it came to me/It was in the corner/It didn't look like anything/It was a big ball of energy...It almost knocked me out of tune/I was trying to do yoga in a standing pose," with a constant chorus of "Who's your father" in the background. Further along in the same song, the narrator seems to be talking to the ball of energy in question: "I don't believe you. You have no soul. I have a soul. I'm a human. You're not... You can't have soul and intelligence at the same time." Well, enough said.

And then there was the video projection. For the majority of the set, it was a low-resolution film that featured a man in a white mask (also dressed business casually) walking about urban and industrial spaces. The connection between the content of the film and of the music was unclear. Toward the end of the set, the video turned into a psychedelic visualizer along the lines of those featured in Windows Media Player circa 1999. That, too, was odd.

"Lord save me from this negative force," they echoed-shouted-sermonized at the end of the set. To that I say: OK 60 Watt Kid, yes indeed.

posted Apr 30, 2008
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