"Do you want to buy some sex tapes?"

Such was the question posed to this reviewer by a street hustler prior to the April 25th Squarepusher show in Asheville, NC. Somehow that question framed the whole evening. No, I did not want to buy sex tapes, but I did want to hear some of that audio pornography, the crotch rattling square .wavs, the phallic bass noodlings and the erotic fetishism that is Squarepusher and opening act Cassetteboy.

Cassetteboy consisted of two gents in Tony Blair and George Bush masks, respectively. They favored a fevered audio collage/plunderphonics approach to music, turning Harry Potter into a tale of prepubescent and magical sex. They were scatological to say the least, but they were also infinitely more interesting than the DJ that bookended their set.

At midnight the baby-faced Tom Jenkinson (Squarepusher) finally hit the stage. Armed with a laptop, a four string bass, a six string bass, and any number of strobe lights, Squarepusher began to melt this reviewer's face. During "Dimotane Co" (from 1996's Feed Me Weird Things) this reviewer stuck his head deep into a stage monitor and subsequently incurred both permanent ear damage and potential brain damage. The strobe lights thankfully reduced the embarrassing dancing of the nearly all white crowd to still images. If only they could do something about the stink of the random, and inexplicable, hippies in attendance.

The show progressed for an indeterminate amount of time, concluding with the encore performance of "Come on my Selector." It was truly amazing to hear an audience shout, in unison, "I'm your fucking daddy."

After the show this reviewer attempted to get a pic with Tom Jenkinson, but like many bands this reviewer has seen, Mr. Jenkinson had a "chicks before dicks" approach to dealing with fans. Not being a chick, this reviewer got no photograph. Nonetheless, the reviewer went home rocked, deaf, and broke. It was a good night, now where are those sex tapes?

Rating: 5