CRUDE/ the Palace of Wisdom
/thee Aesthetics

@ the Media, Club 28/8/03

"The artist knows that his work has its full effect only when it arouses belief in an improvisation, in a wondrous instantaneousness of origin; and so he encourages this illusion and introduces into art elements of inspired unrest, of blindly groping disorder, of expectantly attentive dreaming when creation begins, as deceptions that dispose the soul of the viewer or listener to believe in the sudden emergence of perfection."

Freddy Nietzsche, "Human, all too human", 1878.

A Nietzsche quote may seem a strange way to start a gig review but the gist of this quote rang loudly in my head as I was confronted by the sheer raw genius that is Matt Middleton.

Matt has been around the NZ music scene for about 10 years or so and where I hang out it's pretty safe to call him a legend.

CRUDE is the name given to Matt's highly prolific 'avante garde' solo work while thee Aesthetics is his rock band.

When I booked this gig we were initially going to play with the Incisions but Nick's heart doesn't really seem to be in the Incisions these days. He is way more into his new electro disco band - 'the Shocking Pinks'. He did however mention that Matt Middleton had been hassling him out for a gig in Christchurch.

Fucking "A" lets do it says I and what's more Nick was going to be playing drums for thee Aesthetics ! I couldn't wait but I had to. So I did.

I bumped into Nick and Linton in the square outside Mr Van Soest's place of employment a bit after lunch time on the Thursday of the gig.

Nick asked me if I had heard anything from Matt recently as he hadn't. Nah I replied so we just figured we'd see him at the venue.

Well about a minute after they left I thought I heard this little voice going 'Oxy.Oxy'.

I turned around and not unlike Clark Kent; out of a phone booth appeared mild mannered Matt Middleton, the alter ego of 'super out of it music man'. Defender of and entertainer to the drunken and drug addled.

Matt introduced me to his bassman Jason and informed me that they didn't have anywhere to stay. I had to break the sad news that I didn't actually live in Christchurch at the mo' and was just crashing at Ben's myself.

I assured them something would turn up and said that I could look after their gear til the sound check at six. After skinning up a joint for the lads in the bottle store car park I had to 'go see a man about a dog' and dropped them off on Manchester street.

That must have been about three. We got to the Media Club just after six and Matt being the true pro that he is showed up soon after.

However the bar manager, she takes one look at & Jason and goes " No way mate. You and your mate are pissed. Too pissed. The bands don't start till ten. Come back then !"

I informed her that Matt was the first and last act and that he wasn't so much pissed as exhibiting the first symptoms of a recently diagnosed and yet to be named debilitating brain disease.

She didn't buy that pork pie and told Matt to fuck off until ten ! Ben and I didn't really think Matt looked any more pissed than normal.

Realising the gig could be in jeopardy we decided it necessary to consult our little rock & roll bible. The answer lay on page three hundred and twenty three. Fish & Chips some strong espresso and a little Lsd !

This turned out to be a piece of piss. I am a connoisseur of the finest fish & chips shops this skinny country has to offer. Ben is addicted to Espresso and I have recently learned his ways with the stove top.

The acid wasn't a problem either. The dog I had been to see about in the afternoon turned out to be a Labrador/Spaniel/Dalmation cross.

I was going snowboarding the next day and I find that I perform a lot better on the snow if I am on drugs. Ski fields are in fact fabulous places to take drugs as everybody is generally happy and therefore you are far less conspicuous. People aren't so jealous I guess.

Even so I was still reluctant to part with my alien impregnated cardboard friend as the fuckers are as rare as rocking horse shit around here at the moment.

I realised the gig could be on the line though and it would have been selfish to 'hog all the sid' as the saying goes.

Besides, the last time I went snowboarding on acid there was an avalanche and I was on the network news tripping.

So after careful consideration I parted with that little puppy knowing that on the day rock & roll's need for acid was greater than mine.

We returned to do the door at about a quarter to ten. Matt & Jason were by this time exuding an aura of general goodwill and mellow vibes.

Ice waters all round to the bar staffs amazement. I explained to the bar manager that I had given the boys a good talking to about the evils of the demon drink and that I thought they had taken my advice to heart.

Soon after we had set up the door Matt brought over some Cd's to sell. About 15 or 16.

Nothing too unusual in that you say? Well actually we were totally blown away because there were 13 different CRUDE cd's!! As well as thee Aesthetics "OFF" album on US indie Mental Telemetry. All the CRUDE cd's were in neat little cardboard sleeves. Very impressive.

Prodigous humblingus outputus maximus to quote my pidgin latin.

CRUDE kicked off about 10:30 and must have played for at least 45 minutes. No doubt Matt could have kept going for hours going by his Cd output. CRUDE is Matt and his 4 track with heaps of tape loops and other weird sounding stuff going on. Whilst controlling this backing vehicle Matt enlightens us with what seems like the worlds most profound acid karaoke. Any struggling careerist would cry at the quality and throwaway effortlessness of Matt's lyrics tonight.

The bottom line is these are good songs backed up by weird weird exciting rhythms that somehow creep into your mind.

Everybody loved it except for a couple of club members and the bar staff who whenever I got a drink kept asking me when 'this' was going to end and when 'we' were going to go on.

The small crowd being the sophisticated rock fans that they are they were well into it.

This was only the palace of Wisdom's fourth weekend of playing in Christchurch this year. A combination of me being in Blenheim concentrating on my business and Ben snowboarding every weekend has meant we are playing even less frequently than usual. Never mind next year will be the year. Lots of new songs time and focus.

The lack of practice time meant no new material to debut but it seemed like a pretty solid old set to us just the same and people seemed to lap it up as per usual.

I had seen thee Aesthetics a couple of times before so I knew what to expect. Even so this gig exceeded my expectations and was yet another positive advertisement for recreational drug use.

The rhythm section of Jason on Bass and Nick on drums was incredible. Nick is an amazing drummer. It is easy to see why the Brunettes poached him off us. More incredible was that he hadn't practised with them before. Unbelievable.

So we had this dirty rock and roll rhythm section that was way tighter than should have been humanly possible teamed up with Mr genius on guitar who just happened to be on a nice manageable acid buzz. Crazy.

While Nick and Jason got the head nodding Matt took us places with his guitar, it's chords and it's feedback.

The desperate impassioned vocals and intelligent lyrics coupled with Matt's uniquely menacing 'alcoholic lounge singer' stage presence had the crowd captivated. Even the bar staff were enthralled.

At one point Matt was playing his guitar with his foot and I remember thinking that there would be no other way this song could be played than with a foot !

So many great songs that just reminded me of the Nietzsche quote and it's comment on true genius and it's impact upon the audience. People were just staring wondering what Matt would do next.

This gig was a ton of fun. The Palace of Wisdom will definitely be playing with the Aesthetics again in the coming months. Hopefully in Dunedin.

Well that's about all from here folks. Stay twisted.