"Dataprism Preview Show" Gig Review

Somewhere in the south, a musical stew of glitch, solo, and slow music emanates from a garage and the local police just glance and look around. Internet glitch-pop group Faxgang threw a preview party of their upcoming project “Dataprism” in the garage/mini sari-sari store of Tonchi’s house surrounded by PMC discord friends meeting IRL for the first time since the pandemic and moshing to the mayhem.

The event was as DIY as it gets: a simple garage that led to a backyard with the crowd-favorite turtle pond (where vocalist Tonchi got his moniker PKShellboy). It felt a bit out of place with the local barangay hall just next door and local police buying yosi and snacks from the sari-sari store-turned-music-hall garage. It embodied the whole DIY experience down to the difficulty of locating the venue. A map would have been useful especially for a new venue complete with hand-drawn out-of-scale streets and a huge X mark for the venue. My girlfriend and I found the venue by following a kid that was lugging a guitar amplifier.

The performances were varied and entertaining overall. Papa Jawnz opened the afternoon with a stellar set. I don’t describe these kinds of sets very well but I appreciate DJs abilities to hype the crowd and read the room. Next up was a solo set by THE markmuffins who played his hits and even shared the space with dis.placed for their shoegaze cover of “Glacier” by Ang Bandang Shirley. cosmic basement was next with an earnest and intimate solo set followed by banger DJ sets from k1ko and AHJU$$I. AHJU$$I even introduced Vice* for a couple of hard-hitting songs! If anyone knows where I can find his music, hit me up. What followed was the low point of the gig - the set from internet collective rime.dna. You had lip syncing and malfunctioning mics (that didn’t happen during the other performances) and it was weird overall but kudos to their one rapper/rnb guy for saving the set. I understand the difficulty of introverts performing in front of audiences but most performers are introverts but still deliver. Maybe they just need more practice. Modry-Modry was the next performer and played a stripped-down set featuring songs from his latest album. Last performer was the star of the evening. PKShellboy played a long set featuring crowd favorites and previews of Fax Gang’s new songs. It’s amazing that they performed a long set solo. Gargling water in between songs to soothe vocal pain can only give you so much but they really gave their all during the performance.

Aside from the difficult to navigate venue, the event felt like a success. It showed how strong the local fanbase is glitch-pop and their ability to show up for IRL events. The genre is new to me but feeling and seeing the energy is no different to how fans of other genres show their love - moshing and crowd surfing are always tell-tale signs of a good time.

Check out the performances below!

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