Meanwhile, I do not have sufficient words of excitement to express when I learned that Mentallo and the Fixer are touring the USA for the first time since 2006.

Tour dates:

MAY 1 - LAS VEGAS
MAY 2 - SANTA ANA
MAY 4 - SAN FRANCISCO (technically I think it's actually Alameda as part of the World Goth Day Festival?)
MAY 6 - PORTLAND
MAY 8 - SEATTLE

Has links to buy tickets:

https://linktr.ee/mentalloandthefixer

@xorcist_band@mastodon.social will be performing during the last two dates (in Portland and Seattle)!

A part of me is tempted to drive to see them at all of their West Coast dates (or at least Portland), but given the state of my vehicle currently, I'll be lucky enough to just attend one show.

For those who aren't familiar with Mentallo and the Fixer, they're comprised of two brothers (Gary and Dwayne Dassing); though they hail from Texas and started in the 1980s, their first releases were on cassette in the early 1990s and by the time they got CD and 12" releases? Those were all on labels (notably: Zoth Ommog) from Europe originally. So they weren't super well known in the USA unless you were really into underground electronic music.

They didn't first tour the USA until 1996 which may have also been the first time they left their state?

I seem to recall there was an interview with them in Synthesizer magazine or something which focused more on their collection of hardware than their compositions, but that was just kind of a sign of the times I guess. The 1980s and even into the grunge laden early 1990s, there was still a lot of "drum machines have no soul" BS that leveraged unmerited hatred upon electronic musicians.

I drove 8-10 hours to see them when they first toured since I wasn't 21 and the show in SF was 21+. I ended up meeting a bunch of folks from the industrial channel on EFNet (IRC) in person for the first time. I still remember looking over at the keyboardist from Hate Dept. (who was also an IRC regular) when Mentallo more or less opened up with "ruthless" (https://alfamatrix.bandcamp.com/track/ruthless) and us both saying something to each other like, "wow this is one of my favorite songs of theirs!") and the night just kept getting better. Bol and Kevorkian Death Cycle were the opening bands at that show. It was well worth the drive!

The drive back north (it turned out two of the friends who came along with me had their high school graduation the next morning) was a bit of an ordeal, we made it back in time!

The second (last?) time they toured, it was after MySpace had come into vogue and Gary recognized me from a post (more or less relaying what I just wrote above about driving to see them) and was super congenial. I felt star struck that he was so personable and probably stammered a bit and was not as gracious in kind as I should have been in retrospect. Still a great show.

They're working on a new album which is supposed to be released later this year? I already caught a hint of that from some musicians I spoke with when I saw Leæther Strip last Fall, but I was not expecting a tour! Probably about the most exciting show announcement of the year for me, and later this month The Egyptian Lover is touring and will be playing in SoCal later this month. Funker Vogt (their first US tour since 2009) and Leæther Strip are touring the states again soon too. Not to mention I bought tickets to see Autechre in October already. May has OMD, Lauren Mayberry (of CHVRCHES notoriety) and a lot of other shows (one of my friends is excited about Sleigh Bells and Lights who are both playing in May too I guess?) are starting to ramp up as festival season is almost upon us, but Mentallo and the Fixer to me at least, are a rare gem of synthesizer wizardry.

#MentalloAndTheFixer #Industrial #EBM #Elektro #Music #Live #Tour #Synthesizer