Just another WordPress.com weblog

We had the pleasure of meeting Dominic Rabalais by chance last year.  As we were searching the MySpace circuit for local musicians we may not have heard of yet, we came across an energetic, one-man pop/punk powerhouse calling himself Coyote Slingshot.  We became intrigued with the structural layout of the songs, the flailing, yet precise sequences of drums and keys, accompanied by fuzzed out, erratic, six-string strumming and a sincerity in emotive delivery that is sometimes hard to come by… in this case, the rise and fall of genuine and sometimes blinding hate and frustration, subsiding and revealing itself as an endless and all-encompassing love for those who feel they don’t belong anywhere; the patrons of dirty alleys stomping in sludge puddles accented with broken glass, and sparse concrete basements with low ceilings… in a sense, the kids that spent a lot of time sleeping in the nurse’s office at school to avoid some terrifying and persistent social phenomena they couldn’t quite pinpoint.

About a month ago, I had the pleasure of witnessing Dominic in a beautiful and frenzied performance, slowly unhinging and stomping out the slow-burning mellow mood of the evening with a sweat-soaked serenade involving five-or-so awe-struck onlookers with knees pressed firmly against the stage, and a good twenty-or-so people in booths at the back, as Dominic thrashed his way around, over, and through an innocent drum-kit bystander and his own amplifier, veins standing at attention in his neck, all the while maintaining the progression and rhythm of each track on the set list.  He captivated that night, I could see it in the faces of the attendees, safe in their booths on the other side of a partition… and when the set was complete, he sauntered outdoors in a torn and sweaty t-shirt to -15 degree weather to light up a cigarette and cool off for a bit.

In the past couple of weeks Dominic has traded in the sequenced drums and keys that he would let rage on his iPod mini while he played along, and enlisted the talents of Sarah Lindsey on drums and Rose Hoffmann on keys to add to the mystique and energy of live performances.  He is also known for his involvement in the electro-dance whirlwind that is Porno Galactica, with his brother, Phillip Rabalais (recently voted best musical act in Fairfield, with the help of a large, angry, and love-sick local following), and the organization of a four-night musical swinger’s party, complete with lovely abandon, known only as Sweat Power Fest.  Thursday through Sunday, January 14-17 featured 20+ bands and countless affairs with everyone’s favorite jezebel, live music.  Among the warriors of the weekend were GRISM, Datagun, Lipstick Homicide, Mumford’s, Christopher the Conquered, and The Mystery Train, as well as Porno Galactica (soon to be known as Utopia Park), just to name a few.

For the Lo-Fi Lovers show last semester we crammed Dominic and his guitar into a tiny basement storage room/furnace housing on the East side of Iowa City and let him do what he does so well….  We consider ourselves blessed to have featured this young man on our show, and blessed to have made his acquaintance.  Below is a video from that night in which Dominic performs one of my favorites, entitled “Fuck The World”, and an interview with the man himself…. (posted separately)

With truly immortal love,
Kevin and Ian