[ local music ]
CIRCUIT CHURCH 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 26 The Nook on Robinson 2432 E. Robinson St. instagram.com/circuit_church free
Aaron’s Home PHOTO BY MATTHEW MOYER
HEAVY MOOG PARKING LOT Orlando electronics showcase Circuit Church’s monthly shows are free, outdoors and switched on BY MATTHEW MOY ER
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n June of last year, Jared Silvia — musician and founder of Circuit Church, an all-purpose cassette label, events series and (as far as local music goes) electronic subgenre in and of itself — made what, at the time, seemed like a bold decision: He was going to restart his collective’s monthly electronics music showcase. Silvia had been in regular contact with his “informal community” of modular synth and hardware enthusiasts throughout the early course of the pandemic — including Modal_Plane, Void Machine and Zap Danger — and they all were feeling cautiously anxious to give a live show a try. “We were making music and collecting music but missing that instant feedback that you get when you have an audience,” says Silvia. “And also, I think people were getting really just sort of tired of livestreams. It’s like, how livestreams can you go to before you’re like, ‘OK, this is still just me sitting in my house,’ you know?” Circuit Church relaunched at its former Milk District home at the Nook on Robinson on Saturday, June 26, with performances from Fatal Flower, Void Machine and Mata
Live — a sound range going from glitchy squiggles to healing ambience. Whereas, pre-pandemic, Circuit Church was indoors on Thursdays, this was a weekend night event that sprawled out in the parking lot behind the Nook. A mobile sound system was cobbled together from Craigslist by Silvia and duly set up, and tables and chairs were schlepped outside for artists and audience. It was a free show and an early one starting at 7 p.m., no dithering as there was a 10 p.m. deadline to be courteous to neighbors. With nothing in the way of context, the big question was: Will anyone show up? “My feeling was, we’re gonna get like five people,” remembers Silvia. “We’re going to be playing to, essentially, an empty parking lot. But I was happy at the moment to do that because the musicians just needed that outlet. So even if we’re just gathering and playing to each other, in a sense, I felt like that was OK. At least it was giving us a chance to plug into a PA and do a performance.” And in the underground music equivalent to Field of
Dreams, the audience did indeed come. In multiples of the number that came to see Circuit Church V.1 inside the Nook or even when they headlined the pavilion at Mead Botanical Garden (which, in a moment of strange foreshadowing, was the final pre-pandemic Circuit Church event). Chalk it up to cabin fever, blind luck or a new hunger for adventurous sound on the part of a live-music-starved community. But writing as someone who regularly attends left-of-the-dial events and performers, this writer was surprised by the number of new faces (alongside the familiar ones). And many of those same people have made Circuit Church a Saturday-night ritual. “The first one was shockingly well-attended and the thing is, I wasn’t really able to fully account for that attendance,” confesses Silvia. “I think that people were just so absolutely ready to go see live music and the fact that it complied with CDC guidelines. … I think there’s a pretty low bar for entry. If you show up in the parking lot, there’s no charge and you can get a couple of Polar beers for like two bucks or whatever.`` And now here we are nine months later. Circuit Church has been held without fail the third Saturday of every month (except for December, when the appointed date basically fell on Christmas). Circuit Church was one of a number of outdoor events series that geared up during the pandemic; now it is one of the very last still going. Performers over the last nine months have included close Silvia comrades like She Dreamed in Pixels, Berz3rk3r, Aaron’s Home and Mata Live — not to mention his own postpunk project Super Passive and solo endeavor Pressurewave. But Silvia has also welcomed new performers to the Circuit Church pulpit, including TTN, Feline Conduits, Dan Reaves, Saturn Valley, Danielfuzztone and even Tampabased synth-pop artist Whirlynn. [ continued on page 37 ]
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FEB. 23-MARCH 1, 2022 ● ORLANDO WEEKLY
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