Rock shows are all well and good, but there’s a limit to the number of times one can watch hipsters onstage with guitars and electronic doodads before the eyes demand something more engaging. Ambient musicians are the worst offenders, twiddling knobs or clicking on their MacBooks while onlookers stare into space. Thankfully Austin boasts only slightly fewer visual artists per square mile than it does musical ones.
Luke Savisky, the image projector extraordinaire most known in Austin for transforming the old Second Street water tower into a massive, illuminated eyeball on First Night, brings visual accompaniment to the live music of Brian McBride of locally forged ambient behemoths Stars of the Lid. Forgoing screens for his many projectors, Savisky will throw images up on the stained-glass windows and walls of the Central Presbyterian Church. Strangely enough, Savisky had experience projecting images in large churches when he traveled with SotL through Europe.
Local opening act Amasa Gana also gets the treatment courtesy of the inimitable A/V jack-of-all-trades Wiley Wiggins, whose work with projections for the Octopus Project makes him more than qualified. According to Wiggins, obscure clips will be put through his special digital meat grinder.
The ear-and-eye massage takes place at Central Presbyterian Church (200 E. Eighth) on Sunday, March 13, at 6pm and will run you $15. Local sonic experimentalists Fires Were Shot kick things off.
This article appears in March 11 • 2011.
