Lady Dragons

Given how much I love this stuff I can't believe it's taken me until now to go on about about Lucky Dragons and Avocet. To my great pleasure I caught both in Oakland this November performing inside a perfect cave made of paper by the ever enchanting David Wilson. Lucky Dragon's Luke Fishbeck & Sarah Rara (top 10 best names for sure) create performances that feel like interactive happenings. At The Cave show, beautiful and endlessly tall Luke folds himself over his laptop and begins to generate sounds by shaking electrified seed pods with a great deal of reverb. Handing them to people in the crowd, the sounds multiply. Luke then unfurls rainbow colored, tentacle-like electric cables attached to sensors and puts them in outstretched hands, gently pressing people to make contact with one another. The cables respond to touch. Ahhha. Making music by touching each other. Pretty good. The sound itself is just what it should be coming from a mass of folks swaying together—an unearthly delight that is tonal, but joyous and soothing. Lucky Dragons has become something of an art world darling, appearing in museums the globe over, and the praise is right on.

Luke Fishbeck sheds some light.

Superb lady Meara O'Reilly has been steadily working her way toward the priestess-like presence she channels in recent Avocet performances. Watching and listening to Meara is utterly disarming. You no longer know what era you are in, nor what land, as you are transported to a space of stark, eerie, gorgeous sound.  A true experimenter, Meara creates amazing instruments to boggle the mind. Her set at The Cave show included the belladonna, which generates silver noises from silver forks and a more recent addition....On a square of black metal Meara spreads table salt. Then she stands, back lit, above the salt covered plate and begins crooning crazy tones in a mic. The salt rearranges itself into patterns—making me pretty sure I am witnessing a sacred mystery. First a wave-like arrangement, then criss-crossing lines and on. I'm still trying to understand how it works, but I do know that Meara is awe inspiring.

Meara treated us to some ancient sounding Greek and Mongolian songs with guitar as well. Delicate and fierce at the same time they were totally stunning. Avocet resonates deeply.