UFO Sex Scene/i_like_dog_face
Friday, October 2nd 2015
Frolic Exchange, Tampa FL

Originally published at Suburban Apologist

Three gigs in two days. Part one: go!

The music marathon begins at the Whirlynn-based art house, where I get a sneak preview of the astronaut and alien scientist characters who will later welcome us into October. Performance and make-believe is not the domain of corporate entities nor exclusive to the selling season, innit!

When we get to Frolic Exchange in Tampa there’s more of that sentiment. A series of tiny enclaves are to host, a shoebox-shaped vintage shop and two adjoined courtyards. The main one with the performances features windowboxes and tabletops made out of pallets and many cacti on spring; there’s rocks on the ground. It’s like being inside a mini zen garden on some CEO’s desk, that they use to centre themselves when faced with a pending ideological crisis. Sarah Valdez AKA i_like_dog_face can be spotted rolling on these rocks. I see little, unfortunately, of her set, but to further judge by her recordings this experimental fare is ethereal both vocally and musically. ‘Bubble gum drop dinkers’ and ‘Hearing The Void’ have a dark old dubsteppy production. Attending is a dog with a likeable face. 

It’s possible that decades from now, operations like Frolic Exchange will be displaying quasi-kitsch paraphernalia from UFO Sex Scene the way they currently do Playboys, signalling an enlightened trajectory. The best foreign-being themed act since Foo Fighters or Alien Ant Farm want to believe in that great future (space travel and all), pushing the envelope in all directions visually and audibly. One of their warmup notes sounds like the opening to the Fatboy Slim remix of ‘Body Movin,’ while Valentina Garcia body morphs a green balloon dog into existence. Roundup-defiant bees fly around the mothership CFL bulb in anticipation. Sadly, when you stretch yourself you are sometimes frustrated by current limitations, with equipment struggles one after the other not resulting in the band's finest hour. The anthemic ‘Don’t You Try To Play Me’ might as well have referred to UFO Sex Scene’s instruments. But that’s the risk there is in science, without which your life would be extremely fucking dull. The potential is what is exciting. To read the data on a more successful study, here’s the band in August. You should try to play it.

Video courtesy of footage lord Jim Grinaker.