Fractal

The Sports Page, Mountain View, CA

Friday 10th August 2001

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This was our very first public outing! It was a private party for the PAE group of Sun Microsystems Inc. And what a first gig it was...

As if playing in public together for the first time were not bad enough - this event was turned into chaos thanks to the state of California's legal machinery! A couple of weeks before the gig, Jim, our bass player, got his notice to do jury duty. We thought it unlikely he would be tied up for the whole time and that there would be a high probability of his making the gig. In fact as time went on we thought it more likely. Jim ended up being a potential juror for a capital multiple homicide trial and our first gig looked like being right at the back end of the jury selection process, and thus with every chance that Jim would either have been selected or rejected by this time. Oh how mistaken we were.

The selection process went on forever and Jim was honest and upstanding, not taking any of the usual opportunities for avoiding selection for a potentially long and "messy" trial. It got to the night before the gig and we decided that we were still going to go ahead. All that was left was for the alternate jurors to be selected and Jim reckoned this would not take long. So we decided to set up on his behalf and hope that he would turn up at the end of selection or during his lunch break.

So we set up and waited....and waited. Adrian started looking nervous at the prospect of having to substitute for Jim. No easy task this, when you consider that Adrian only knew the bass line to one song!! Anyway in the nick of time, Jim appeared and we played all of our pieces which required bass within the first hour, leaving Nic, Paul and Adrian to complete the set following Jim's return to the jury selection process. Unfortunately for Jim, he was selected as an alternate and had to sit in court for 90 days or so, yet without having to deliver a verdict.

All in all a chaotic first gig!

Musically the gig reflected the general chaos...

Of particular note is the fact that as far as we know this was the first public performance of FraKctured by any band other than its creators, King Crimson. We have since played it at most of our gigs.

Anyway set list below and pictorial evidence .

Intended Set List

First Set

Improv - Consolation I

The National Anthem

Red

Improv Soundscape into Dominatrix

Piece For Our Time Part I

Piece For Our Time Part II

Intermission

Second Set

Breathless

FracKtured

Friptomoogosity

Fractal Countdown

Strumming

Pastorial Synthony

Heptaparaparshinokh (Adrian on bass)

Encore

Evil Improv

Red