Adult.
Swung by the LS party last night @ Varnish to co-mingle with the various freaks and geeks who define the SF tech/Burning Man/art scene. It was a grand sight: bondage clowns gone bad, bunnies wearing pinafores, and vehicles decked out with various textiles, sequins, swirling murals, and kitschy toys attached to every available inch of surface area. We hung out on a tiki hut/truck complete with a thatched roof and strung lights 
Then with the Ryan King and Mr. Cocoalicious, I made my way to the Independent to catch Adult. As usual, Nicola commanded the same flat intensity that sets her photography apart: highly stylized, yet cooly removed from any emotional attachment. Watching her stare back at the audience made me smile, as it felt like she was redefining the idea of the female gaze (”Don’t f*ck with me, I’m too tragically hip to connect with you”). Her blank look and exaggerated vocals offered sharp contrast to her drippingly sweet, almost naive “Thaaankk yoouuu” narratives between songs. It felt like witnessing a schizophrenic punk diva switch between her different personalities…
It was also interesting to see Samuel share the stage with Nicola and Adam. His influence on the D.U.M.E. mini-album (Thrill Jockey/2005) shone through with the punchier rhythms and atonal coloring that pervaded throughout the album’s six tracks. But the audience rocked out the hardest to Adult.’s older synthpop material, which the band largely withheld until their extended encore. “Contagious” and “Nausea” from their earlier Resuscitation (Ersatz Audio/2001) brought the house down.
Afterward, Zam Zam’s kept us entertained with trip-planning to SXSW as well as drunken Irishmen pelting out their pride through rounds of pints and impromptu singing… God bless SF.
