I ended up at the Main stage, hoping to catch Tchkung's set. I hadn't seen Tchkung since the Elysium rave at NAF in 1993. Since then they had played extensively, then were on hiatus for a while when one of the main guys got badly burned during a performance, toured Central America and had built up quite a buzz for themselves.
When I got to the mainstage a mesmerizing performance was happening: Oil barrels with flames licking out of them were the main lighting for two guys with two instruments, a bass/guitar and a homemade thingamajig were kicking out some of the most intense tribal cacophony anyone has ever heard this side of Einsturzende Neubauten. The songs were tribally percussive, feedback driven, abrasive and aggressive, and really loud - all very good things given the setting. The homemade thingamajig was a work of art unto itself. Played with mallets and grinders, made of metal, with wires to act as stringed resonators, with built-in pickups, it made a beautifully riotous amount of noise, plus showered the audience in sparks when played with the grinder.
I found out later that this was Scott Jenerik and I didn’t catch the name of his partner. Jenerik doused the instrument with kerosene toward the end of the set and played it with the mallets. The flames jumped higher every time he hit it with a hard stroke. I tried out my little Canon Sureshot that I had bought at the Wal-Mart in Sparks the night before, hoping for the best. The folks watching in the front row may have gotten more than they bargained for, though, because at the end of the song, Jenerik, in apparent dissatisfaction with the way the instrument was holding up to the flames, kicked the instrument forward, causing it to flip over, off the stage and into the front row, flames and all as people scattered everywhere, thus ending their set. Whew!
Between sets I talked to a gal from Skykomish (!?) who seemed a bit out of sorts and had her face almost fully covered, probably to filter out the smoky air.
Then I talked to a guy from Santa Monica who had just arrived and eventually asked me if I knew where one could buy water onsite. I asked him if he had read the required Burning Man reading materials which said to bring everything one would need to survive and he said "Huh, no, I just thought you'd be able to buy water and stuff here". I chastised him, telling him that one of the lessons I had learned that day was that the little things in life can teach you just as much as the big things. He agreed. "Yeah, like bringing water out into the desert might seem like a little thing until you die of thirst after a few hours." So I gave him a drink and wished him well.
Tchkung started their set with some body painted singers chanting the night away, trying to seduce the audience into a trance. This may or may not have worked for the rest of the crowd but I got a bit bored and took a bike ride to see what else there was to see in the immediate vicinity. Not much really, so about 15 minutes later I found myself back at the stage. The rest of the band had come out, but the music stayed fairly low key and trance like. It was nothing like the enraged Earth First organizers I had witnessed four years ago at Elysium. A healthy change I'm sure, and their music was quite hypnotic. Various fire dancers and fire eaters were in attendance, showcasing their talents in an impromptu like manner, although none monopolized attention - each fire performer would do their thing for a song, then let another showcase their talent on the next song. Another form of the organized chaos which ruled at Burning Man.
Tchkung did not completely enrapture me so I headed off for other adventures after watching them for half an hour. Still, I might go see them here in Seattle if the venue is outside or somewhere interesting.