An Evening With Mono

Okay, the tickets said Pelican but I didn't hear of Pelican before and I was really there to see Mono anyway. What's Mono you say? Mono is an entirely instrumental band that experiments with noise as art and ambience as the core of their work. Considered 'Post-Rock', they use their talent by layering gentle yet often high speed strumming and beautifully simple guitar melodies over a usually slow & low groove bass & drum beat. While many of their lengthy songs are slow in pace, they still bring a very high impact to the listener. After a carefully crafted, six-minute lulling intro, Mono will crash down with an assault of full and true rock sound complete with perfectly timed drumming, feedback and high distortion strings barely similar to the sad, heavy ballads of '90s alternative. Simple, yet not trite or bland...



Progressive noise acts are not for all. It is a small market that the likes of Mono are catering to. That said, I believe we'll see this style rise to a more popular platform in today's culture. I came to this because while I was at Lee's Palace, it was clear that a majority of the crowd was naturally there to see the headliner, Pelican. I've seen this before. A crowd of excited people await to see the band they paid for and they end up being blown away by the preceding act. With the end of each song Mono played, the audience bursted with enthusiasm and applause. Perhaps the crowd didn't save enough of their cheering energy for Pelican. Perhaps the crowd had drank too much by that point. Perhaps it was clear once Pelican took the stage, Mono seemed to be Pelican's favorite band. Whatever it was, Pelican's performance while properly in sync, loud as hell and very metal noise, was certainly upstaged by Mono's professional presence and creativity. There were die hards there who would of course refuse to believe that Mono was a better act, but I watched how the crowd reacted to Mono, bought out Mono's entire stock of CD's for sale and then went back to Pelican reacting with less energy and approval. Not to say that Pelican was unappreciated mind you. Just that they seemed more impressed by Mono's ingenuity. Where does that leave a fan when the headliner's show is wrought with predictability and repetition? Right where it left me- disenchanted. I was disappointed enough to leave the show early, but after all, I wasn't there for Pelican in the first place.



I gained a fair amount of respect for the members of Mono. I got to the venue in time to see what I thought was the band hauling their own gear from their rental van. Always a cool thing to do when no one is going to mob you because your level of fame hasn't gone soaring to the stratosphere. I got inside later and walked over to their merchandise table, which they were also operating themselves, and I picked out a $10 t-shirt. Seriously, when is the last time you could afford a concert t-shirt AND beer? In retrospect, I should've bought a poster for the Pelican/Mono tour. Its design was superb. Like I wish I could do that kind of superb. But again with the Pelican... The t-shirt will suffice.

There was a good amount of hilarity for MightyDoll & I while we were there. We picked out the best spot we could find that gave us a seat that could still allow us to see the stage way over the heads of the crowd. Around the half-way point of the opening act, The bassist from Mono, Tamaki, moved the merchandise to the other side of the table that MD & I were occupying. She remained there until the end of the first set and then she simply vanished leaving all of their merchandise in front of MD & I. Ummm... WTF? Very trusting. I didn't know she was a member of the band until I was looking for her and saw her on stage setting up and minutes later, picking up her bass & beginning the show. So the weird thing was that here's us sitting at the same table as Mono's products. No big deal until they start playing and stunning their new fans. Impressed and craving more, their new fans wander over to our table and begin asking questions about everything from pricing & availability to wether the CD releases are also offered on vinyl. "Uh. I dunno man, I don't work here."
"Well, where did that lady go?"
"Oh her? Yeah, she's onstage performing right now. You should come back later when they're done with their set."
"Right on... Actually, I have to leave..."
At this point MD & I took up the responsibility of selling Mono's product while they were away. MD's rationale was that we couldn't let these new fans leave without taking a CD that they were more than willing to cough up the $10 for. So we kept count and wrote down all that we sold. If fact, we sold them completely out of CD's and fans kept coming up & asking for more. It's likely that Mono would've sold out of their stuff on their own, but it was kinda cool to help them make that last $70. Before we started selling items, MD & I were wondering what to do. It was a strange situation to be presented with, watching over the band's belongings. MD initially suggested that we were the subject of a rather funny yet productive Japanese practical joke. Finally, after their set, Tamaki returned to finish the job. She was surprised to say the least, but also quite thankful. That's what you get for leaving your merchandise at the table of the nice Canadian & her defecting American boyfriend.

Thank you very much to Mono for a great performance. I can tell that you love what you do because you travel the world over to make peanuts and play for us. THAT is love & dedication.