ExperimentalBehavior.com is a Web-based community of artists, musicians, performers, and writers centered in Cleveland, Ohio. While most of the 500+ members are from Northeast Ohio, the membership includes people from other parts of the country and a few from outside the U.S. The mission of the Website is to connect people who otherwise might not have a chance to interact, to support not only their own creative endeavors, but also to help cross-pollinate between these different groups thus helping to build new collaborations and provide a strong network foundation. The board is used for a lot of social interaction between members as well. Northeast Ohio itself has a mind-boggling talent pool that's truly busting at the seams to break out. The folks at ExBe hope to be able to work together to make this happen. To that end, ExperimentalBehavior.com supports and promotes a variety of performing arts events and on Oct.29th/30th hosted a showcase featuring 11 bands/performers from around the Midwest. Each night's bill included quite a variety of musical stylings and the crowds were made up of people from all over Cleveland's creative scenes. The bands each performed a 30-minute set. The following is a run-down of the showcase performances.

Admission to the showcase included a copy of the new literary publication called A Million Tiny Pieces. Edited by local writer Eric Alleman, AMTP was printed in zine format and includes poetry, short story narratives, and photography from ExBe members. Two highlights of the booklet are the fantastic cover art by local artist Joe Day, and a dy-no-mite word collage piece in the shape of a praying mantis by Dirt Goddess.

FIRST NIGHT: Friday, October 29 at the Winchester, Lakewood OH

The Winchester is a former bowling alley that's been transformed into a music hall featuring acts running the gamut from Leon Russell to Chris Poland to Bernie Leadon to Esma Redzepova (the Queen of Romani Gypsy music). The main performance space is a large room with the stage in one corner in front of an elevated area with tables. To one side of this is a dance floor and a large area for chairs. In the back is a lounge area with a small bar and more seating. This club gets brownie points for having the main bar in a separate room, thus cutting down on bar noise competing with performances.

THE ACTS:

Electric Grandmother, Columbus OH

The Electric Grandmother is described as being "lo-fi sitcom-core". EG is a one-man musical comedy act featuring Pete Faust on a microphone singing pop-inspired ditties revolving mostly around '80s TV sitcoms and his own style of cultural commentary. Accompanied by a photo pictorial slide show, a bubble machine, and his own 4-track recordings of drums and synth keyboards, Pete got the crowd going with songs about "Doogie Houser", "Full House", "Growing Pains", and riding bicycles. There was much giggling with people dancing and calling out requests for songs about particular shows. EG's bubble machine created a most excellent bubble sculpture. If you have a soft spot in your heart for '80s television and pop music, the Electric Grandmother is for you.

Colorforms, Cleveland OH

This three-piece electro-ambient group of sound colorists have spent most of their performance time pulling Saturday all-nighters at the Rainbow House trying to sonically improvise the breakdown of boundaries of perception. I was keen to witness how they were going to translate this concept into a 30-minute set under bright lights in front of a sizable audience. The set began with J. Kyle Moyer on guitar/effects/loops, Jack Smiley on noise/effects/samplers/loops, and Everyman on laptop and more electronic gear. Their sound was an ambient building of improvised musical themes that grew most melodically. Kyle switched to vocals halfway through, adding another layer to the mix. During the last 10 minutes, Kyle returned to the guitar and the trio completed their set with a more beautiful, affecting, and realized mix of layered loops and effects than I thought could have been possible given the time constraints. As one person commented, "Colorforms made me have a flashback, causing me to have to leave the room for a little. I hadn't had one in a long while, so thanks for triggering some sort of audial-hallucination." Nice.

I'd like to mention here that both nights between sets, Brent Gummow, ExBe Webmaster, screened a great slideshow of photos and visuals taken from both the Website and a variety of previous events that ExBe has been involved in. It was creatively collaged and really representative of the community as a whole.

Brent and co-ExBe founder David Mansbach are the blood, sweat, and tears behind Experimental Behavior's leadership. They maintain the Website and organize events such as this showcase while working steadfastly with the membership of the community to further ExBe's mission.

Scotty Boombox, Columbus OH

Due to the unavoidable cancellation of Dayton's Oxymoronatron, Mr. Scotty Boombox kindly offered to perform a solo set in their stead. Scotty Boombox is another one-man musical act described as being "oddly melodic electronic music and beat-focused trip-hop." Scotty's set-up included several electronic sound devices, a laptop, a turntable, and a milk crate of LP's. The stage was darkened and a floor-light machine and strobe subtly cast a bluish haze around him. Accompanied by pre-recorded instrumentation, Scotty performed original songs using live vocals and turntable techniques. His sound alternated between melodic singer/songwriter and straight pop-electronica with Eddie Vedder-ish vocals. One song had a definite Tool kind of feel. If you're a fan of '90s electro-pop and like to see a person who can still scratch with finesse, then Scotty Boombox is for you.

J Rhodes, Columbus OH

J Rhodes has a reputation for being disgusting, crude, rude, and socially unacceptable. Due to the Winchester's management being uptight over a recent performance where things were broken, they insisted on this showcase featuring performances that were "calm and respectful" with no "shouting into microphones." Ha! I think that J Rhodes conducted himself with as much restraint and decorum as he is capable of as a performer without completely losing the essence of his act. This was J Rhodes-Lite. Even so, there was much in the way of profane subject matter and general grossness.
Imagine if Andrew Dice Clay was a musician who rapped and had an obsession with body fluids. During his performance he came "this close" to self-induced vomiting onstage. He also sphincter-synched by nearly defecating on the floor at the feet of the audience. Were this at another venue, I suspect it would have devolved into a bloody, bile-covered mess. Speaking of devolution, both JR and his musical backer Scotty Boombox wore masks reminiscent of '70s era Devo. Musically, the material was mostly pre-recorded with Scotty providing some turntable effects and other sounds. JR mixed rapping with poetry slam-styled orating, singing, and lip-synching of original material, incorporating catchy songs that were at times clever, at times profane. Each song spoke to an underlying intelligence in the writer that belied their use of locker-room humor, obnoxiousness, and shock value stylings. I think that in a one-on-one chat away from a stage, Mr. J Rhodes would turn out to be a pretty aware kind of guy and an interesting conversationalist.

New Planet Trampoline, Cleveland OH

Local favorites New Planet Trampoline closed out the night with a blistering set of high energy organ-laden rock that made me want to grow my hair long again. This four-piece of guitar, bass, keys, and drums has been described as being "an explosive Farfisa-fueled rock 'n' roll act combining the best elements of '60s garage and psych," and man, did they deliver! NPT's set list usually contains songs heavy on both the fuzz-toned psychedelic as well as garage-reverb guitar solos. In honor of behaving experimentally tonight, they opened with a song called "Confidence Man" that totally morphed into a complete drum and guitar Hendrix-like psychedelic freak-out. Drummer Charlie Druesedow had his moment in the spotlight trading solos with Matt Cassidy on guitar while Ben Gmetro and Dave Molnar filled in space with subtle drones and effects on the organ and bass. Those guys always seem to have a surprise or two up their sleeves, and this was just a full-on amperage blow out. Another highlight of their set was a break-out performance of Bert I. Gordon, named after the sci-fi B-movie director of such "classics" as Empire of the Ants and Earth vs. the Spider. Matt Cassidy was a true showman as he cavorted and howled onstage, leading the band through songs both beautifully melodic with swoon-worthy vocal harmonies and others with pure, unrefined ass-shakingly crunchy guitar and organ riffing. Rock on.

SECOND NIGHT: Saturday, October 30 at the Beachland Tavern, Cleveland OH

The Beachland Ballroom and Tavern is one of the Midwest's premier live concert venues. Located in the historic Collinwood neighborhood on Cleveland's east side, this former Croatian cultural center now houses two performance spaces - a large Music Hall Ballroom with separate bar area (brownie points), and a smaller intimate Tavern space where a person can view the stage from three sides and really feel like a part of the performance (more brownie points). The venue is independently owned by a couple of really well-schooled music lovers who regularly take chances on booking edgy non-mainstream acts and fundraisers as well as hosting some of THE best touring acts ever. Long live the Beachland Ballroom! Tonight's showcase was held in the Tavern where the beer flowed, but no blood was spilled. Well, maybe some fake blood with it being Halloween and all.

THE ACTS:

DJ Empirical, Cincinnati OH

DJ Empirical (a.k.a. Stephen Boyd) has been described as being "an audio scientist/DJ specializing in mash-ups of vinyl records." He spun during the meet-n-greet and between sets tonight, demonstrating a mastery of improvised turntable mash-up style vinyl manipulation. I think I'm going to start calling him Mr. MixaWizard. His creative use of mixing technique featured some familiar, but mostly fairly obscure recordings and never missed a beat. Stephen's a fan of chaotic experimental noise music and digs artists such as Frank Zappa, Einsturzende Neubauten, John Zorn, and Bill Laswell, so you can imagine the vinyl collection he spins with. I give him two Halloween bloodied-bone thumbs up.

# Station, Kent OH

With influences ranging from the Beatles to the Velvet Underground to Hendrix, Bob Marley, and Jane's Addiction, it's no wonder the # Station's sound is so difficult to pigeonhole. This trio uses a foundation of drums, bass, and guitar with three vocalists and a variety of cool effects to play what I will describe as proggish-art/psych-rock with strong pop sensibilities. # Station delivered a solid performance of mostly original material that included well-written, accessible songs that were engaging, but never strayed too far into bizarroworld. Their set included a nicely covered Talking Heads song that exemplified their art-rock tendencies as used in an energetic, fairly melodic indie-pop framework.

The Volta Sound, Cleveland OH

With almost a complete line-up change over the past eight months, The Volta Sound have been evolving into something that for now can be described as feel-good electric folk rock. The current line-up includes guitar, bass, flute, drums, and one male and two female vocalists. Their set included new, unrecorded material and the performance was all strumming electric guitar, jangly tambourine, and flutey melodic goodness with a real love vibe. Not to be confused with the hippie jam-band genre, The Volta Sound has more of a California sunshine rock aesthetic than a typical groove/funk jam-band noodling sound. Watching them perform, one gets the impression that at any minute you're going to see the sun shining above the stage as these free spirits evoke inspiration from the goddesses of positivity and sparkling blue skies. Still working with a void in the rhythm section, tonight's performance featured Ben Gmetro (New Planet Trampoline, Dreadful Yawns) on drums. Multi-instrumentalist Leia "Alligator" Hohenfeld was entertaining to watch decked out in her signature giant hot dog costume. Her prowess on the flute as well as vocals adds an invaluable layer to the VS's new sound concept. This band is on a journey of discovery and musical/philosophical development, and it's been one really fun ride.

Missile Command, Cleveland OH

Androids take notice: Missile Command is here to represent! MC's mission statement: "Genre has no meaning in the end. Therefore we make music that sounds good to us. There is no leader. We all are part of the construction." Featuring members of Chew's Eye Shop and the scinema and enough gear to equip a space station, this electronic three-piece performed an all original set of heavily industrial-influenced "constructions" that was a real crowd pleaser. Combining techno and glitchy-effected organic instrumentation with pure electro-magic, Missile Command's sound can be described as Fred Schneider/Wall of Voodoo vocals-meet-Front 242 with some NIN sprinkled on top, electronic style. That probably doesn't do them justice. As engaging to watch as they were to listen to, MC incorporated elements of comedy into their performance as well as showmanship with the use of a Keytar and triple vocoders that proved that the robots do, indeed, want to make sweet love. As one person described them, they're "dark yet fun." Their set ended with a beautiful instrumental piece backing the ambient vocals of guest android (singer), Dawn Mitchell. Dawn is a student at Ohio University studying Opera and this training was most obvious in the quality and tone of her wonderful voice. Fans of the '90s era Phantasy/Chamber Complex music scene would love this.

To Box With Man, Cleveland OH

From their Website: "We rely on live video and music and words as well as still video and audience participation to tell stories in a whole new way." To Box With Man is a group comprising four musicians backing local writer Eric Alleman as storyteller, accompanied by videography work by Brent Gummow. During their set, Eric stood at the front of the stage at a podium and orated on everything from dreams about his new baby daughter to political ranting and an improvised spoken-word piece based on his poem, "My America". Meanwhile, using electric guitar and bass, violin, and percussion, the musicians created a wonderful soundscape to accompany him. Their melodic chamber rock style compositions had a kind of sing-song syncopation, often with an almost Asian feel to them. The use of a violin and ethnic percussion added unique layers to their well-written, structured soundtrack. The set ended with Eric leading the audience in a sing-along and Earl, the percussionist, adding a dulcimer to the musical mix. "Oh, I have to believe I can change" was the anthem. Although at times the vocals and music competed with each other, the overall concept of this group is quite unique and entertaining. These are some really talented individuals.

Paucity, Grand Rapids MI

This quartet included a drummer, guitarist, keyboardist, and bassist who doubled as another keyboardist. They performed a solid set of instrumental post-rock with art-rock tendencies that was quick tempoed and incorporated a lot of guitar and keyboard riff repetition. I could hear the influences of bands like Tortoise and GYBE in their controlled ebb and flow rhythmic swells. The musicians were obviously feeling each other, but although there were definite moments of mind-trippery, the crescendos weren't sustained quite long enough to keep me in the zone. As one person described it, "it's like they were on a runway in an airplane going 90 miles an hour, but never quite took off." It was a good performance overall, given the 30-minute time constraint. The guitar riffery was impressive as was the keyboardist's work, but perhaps adding a layer of another instrumental sound rather than a second set of straight keys and drawing out their phrasing more would help Paucity realize their full potential.