Survival Research Labs: Shows:   LA ♥ SRL   V. Vale: Consumate SRL Show in LA

 

Consumate SRL Show in LA

By V. Vale (RE/Search)

On Friday 3pm we drove down Highway 5 to Los Angeles for the Survival Research Laboratories show in front of Dangerous Curve Gallery. The event was curated by Susan Joyce, who is also trying to organize a New York SRL show in May--go to www.srl.org for updates on this. We've heard that it's possible to do the drive in five hours, but we didn't arrive at our friend Gary's house in Fountain Valley until 12:30 a.m. Well, we stopped for a meal at the Red Robin that seemed to take an hour. And at 10:03 pm in Valencia right by Magic Mountain, the freeway turned into a Friday night parking lot...

At the SRL show, we met an old friend, Kent Beyda, who worked on Search & Destroy magazine circa 1977-79, and he remarked, "In Los Angeles, every time you get into your car, it seems to take at least an hour to get anywhere." To us this seems just insane. Of course, we live in North Beach, San Francisco, where seemingly everything needed for survival is within literally a three block walk, thanks to Chinatown.

Because of the endless driving syndrome considered "normal" (not psychotic) in Los Angeles, and because everything seems to take longer in a stranger/warmer urban sprawl, we didn't arrive at the SRL show location until almost 6pm--three hours later than our original goal of 3pm. We were told this was near "downtown" L.A., and except for a few shopping cart homeless folk, the neighborhood seemed oddly deserted. As we first caught sight of the location, we noticed a great "art car" parked by the road and knew we were where we should be. Immediately the setting itself seemed pleasing -- the warehouses on both sides literally "curved" along a full city block -- a welcome relief from the usual rectilinear urban situation.

A huge "vintage" mahogany Trojan Horse looking like something left over from the curvaceous Art Deco 20s era stood on wheels, and large blow-ups of damaged or deranged soldiers leaned against the walls. (I couldn't believe it when the Trojan Horse was later reduced to a pile of cinders; it seemed like a genuine "antique"--it must have taken a lot of craftsmanship to make it--and it seemed kind of, well, "cute." Maybe it was a survivor from D.W. Griffith's "Intolerance" or another silent sword-and-sandal movie. Oh well--as the Weirdos once put it, "In this world, nothing lasts! It's got to Blow Up! Blow Up!") There was a sort-of merry-go-round with four sheep-like creatures attached (bleeding from their posteriors), and about eight "sneaky" soldiers were being prepared to do battle. Other larger veteran SRL menacing machines were scattered throughout, on the pavement. A very intricate flame-producing setup (?) was at one end of the street. One warehouse wall was covered with old mattresses to receive the beneficence of the Pitching Machine ...

Dangerous Curve Gallery is described as "a new downtown Los Angeles experimental exhibition and performance space located in the Arts District on Fourth Place between Molino and Mateo Streets. We are open Wednesday through Saturday 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm. Street parking is plentiful." (www.dangerouscurve.org) Allegedly this will be the next Yuppie loft neighborhood... On Saturday night it definitely still felt abandoned; block after block of large dark warehouses and empty streets can do that. Far in the background was a lit-up, high-rise, city-looking landscape (the "real" downtown) under a huge expanse of sky. This being Southern California, the temperature was balmy--T-shirt weather.

The show was scheduled to begin at 8:30 but it probably didn't start until around 9pm. Amazingly, just enough people showed up--probably about a thousand total. The two viewing areas were at either end of the closed-off street, and if more people had appeared things could have turned "bad"--simply because there was no more viewing area.

 

 

Then the show began somewhat unannounced, in fits and starts, bringing the war in Iraq to Los Angeles, with unbelievably intense sounds, explosions, lights, shockwave-cannon bowel-rearranging blasts, etc. Every time an SRL show happens, it seems unbelievable, just because no other show on earth provides such pure intense sensation... And you can tell it is not perfectly orchestrated; there's a randomness and slightly chaotic edge; things don't feel 100% under control, even though historically the 47 or so SRL shows have had an admirably "safe" track record in terms of actual audience casualties recorded (close to the zero mark). Nevertheless, one constantly feels ready to duck, just in case that 2x4' piece of lumber goes the wrong direction, or ...

One reason every single SRL show is worth attending is because an SRL show provides a physically-measurable, pushing-the-limits, sheer intensity of experience in two major sensory areas: sound and smell. You can't experience this anywhere else, to our knowledge. The frequent explosions must surely go off the dial of any db meter--earplugs are 100% necessary. (And, earplugs are given away free at every SRL show.) We were fortunate enough to see the show from one of the warehouse roofs, and several times thousands of sparks (from the rail gun, wielded by Karen Marcelo) narrowly missed us, caroming off the wall of the higher building a few feet to our left. We were told they were "harmless," but they certainly don't **look** harmless as thousands of bright lights head directly your way...

At two points we were so engulfed with huge swirling volumes of white smoke (thanks, Kimric!) that we had to run away in the opposite direction, just to be assured of finally breathing some fresh air. The smoke was acrid and toxic-smelling and one almost had a moment of panic (similar to when holding one's breath underwater), but then the smoke seemed to disperse upward quickly. Take our word for it--you did NOT want to breathe in deeply that smoke twice in a row...

So, ultimately, the **entire body** seemed potentially at risk...and there's nothing like a **genuine** physical threat to paradoxically create a genuinely pleasurable exhilaration when the threat has passed -- a kind of **survival euphoria.** This glandularly-felt experience gifts us with a much-needed counterpoint to the suffocatingly **virtual** media-immersive universe we now seem to inhabit 24/7...where everything is symbolic, electronic, digital waveform-generated, and nothing is "analog" anymore...all our experience is coming in the form of sampled digital bits. And everything is too perfect, bright and shiny now, especially on TV. One antidote is an SRL world where everything looks old, weathered, distressed, rusting, recycled, mottled--anything but "modernist," brand-new and "slick."

A final word to thank Susan Joyce for navigating the bureaucratic jungle to get the requisite permits, food and shelter arranging for forty-plus people, and 1001 other details that made the SRL L.A. 4/2/05 show happen--seemingly without a hitch. And Cathy/Tim of Dangerous Curve (possibly the most cutting-edge gallery in L.A.) for hosting the physical location, the crew itself, etc, with hospitality and humor. And the firemen (and the motorcycle cops too) who showed up and didn't shut everything down, but instead listened to the Voice of Reason. And lastly, all the mechanical-ability-gifted eccentric individuals who did real work as part of the SRL crew, including founder Mark Pauline...

 
V. Vale
RE/Search

 

 

 
Photo by Ralf Burgert