Mika Vainio

Formerly one half of industrial minimalists Pan Sonic, Mika Vainio took the stage as the final act of the night's audio-visual program. Standing behind a table of pedals and gadgets, the Finnish noise musician stood in front of a projection-less screen with just his shadow cast large upon it by a sole light shining in his face and onto his equipment. Sine-wave noises, like electronic cicadas chirping in the night build to a louder and louder hum, erupted into a huge drone, filling the auditorium. Then the drum hits came, sounding like a chorus of jackhammers or the cruelest alarm clock in the world going off next to your head. After having his equipment stolen in London, UK, Vainio went shopping in Montreal for some new gear to be able to perform the show. Consequently, the performance perhaps was a variation on what he originally intended, but his deliberate, sludgy and monolithic industrial set worked well in the space, and by the end, you could almost smell the grease of heated machines locked into suicidal loops of frenzy.