We arrived in Columbus around 5 p.m. and met up with friends at Dirty Frank's Hot Dog Palace on South 4th Street. It's a hole-in-the wall hot dog shop with a full service bar and a constantly crowded seating area. The menu offers an insane variety of hot dogs and sausages topped with anything you could imagine. I ended up getting the T-Dog, which is topped with roasted red peppers and bacon, and the Sonoran dog, which was topped with diced onions, refried beans and verde salsa. These dogs were accompanied by some impressively salty fresh-cut fries and an order of fried leeks, which tasted like super-light onion rings. Other dogs at our table featured the old standards (chili, chese, onion, etc.), but a few were topped with beef brisket, cole slaw and the mind-blowing Sriracha mustard.
Following dinner, we made our way from the Short North over to the Brewery District to the venue, Outland, where the show was to take place. Outland is known for its industrial (rock), EBM, darkwave and dubstep DJ nights, which make up about 3 or 4 nights of the week. I'd go on to talk about the venue's décor and ambience, but we didn't go in. As we were parking, it was announced that the show would be canceled because, according to St. Vincent's twitter, “The promoter failed to provide us with a working PA.” Strangely, the girls working the door didn't seem to know, as they were still carding people and letting them in. Given the lack of grammar, spelling or design on Outland's MySpace, it doesn't seem to far from the truth that the venue would be so disorganized. A number of hipster kids, apparently angered by the last-minute cancellation, fought back, hurling snowballs at the venue and hitting random goths standing around on the outdoor patio. 
We decided, instead of driving back, to hit up Skylab Gallery, which was hosting an epic lineup of noise rock, hardcore and no-wave bands. Skylab, the art-gallery penthouse of the Columbus DIY scene, is adorned with murals featuring tribal psychedelic artwork and strange art pieces hanging from pipes and rafters. The four bands on the bill were set up at various points around the room, starting at the front of the venue and working their way back.
First up was Ginger Fetus, in one of it's many incarnations. This version featured John Also Bennett on guitar and vocals, Nicholas Murer on drums, Eva Ball on keyboards and vocals, Dan Olsen on bass and Toby Waggoner on guitar. Ginger Fetus has been different every time I've seen them, ranging from weird, crackly shit-fi noise to old-school no-wave. Last night fell into the latter category, with the band locking into three extended Krautrock grooves that swelled with layers upon layers of noisy guitar and keyboard skronk.
Up next were Cleveland noise rock supergroup Dead Peasant Insurance, the four-piece ensemble made up of Wyatt “Skin Graft” Howland on guitar and electronics, Ryan “Dr. Quinn” Keuhn on electronics, Amanda Howland-Davidson on guitar and vocals and J. Guy Laughlin (of the Puffy Areolas) on drums. It was an ear-splitting blend of feedback, shrieking, free-jazz drumming and lacerating guitar feedback that started off strong and kept getting more and more furious.
After them was Vile Gash, the Columbus hardcore band known for their bummer attitude and anthems such as “Fuck Your Positive Attitude.” They played an extremely aggressive set of songs, each punctuated by a generous dose of guitar feedback between songs. Meanwhile, a huge mosh pit opened up in the tiny room they were playing in, which lead to several shattered bottles as the set became increasingly more violent.
Finally, we were treated to a set by the night's headliner, the legendary Hair Police. The trio of Mike Connelly (also of Wolf Eyes), Trevor Tremaine and Robert Beatty were on top of their game, playing a hellishly atmospheric set that reeked of black metal influence punctuated by bursts of heavy electronics and frantic guitar-and-drum thrashing. The noisy dirges that Hair Police played seemed to release the pent-up aggression and frustrations with the recent cancellation of a huge two-week tour with darkwavers Cold Cave. However, much like my friends and I hitting up this show after a cancellation, the Hair Police guys turned their setback into a positive as well, by recording and mixing a new album in the time they had off.
The night, which at one point looked grim in the wake of a huge change of plans, was a blast, and redeemed my faith in the power of friendship and scene solidarity. Skylab was so welcoming to the throngs of people packed into their house, and all the bands were readily approachable and there to appreciate each other's art. There were no riders or mix-ups or last-minute cancellations. There were no greenrooms or lines out the door or monetary hunger. It was just dirty dudes having fun and coming together in their love of music and art. Isn't that what music is really all about?
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