Who: EOTO
When: Saturday, Sept. 27, 9 p.m.
Where: GLC
Admission: $16 in advance, $20 at the door
Jason Hann and Michael Travis are the multi-tasking men behind
the distinct sound of EOTO (pronounced e-oh-toe), a breakbeat, trip/glitch-hop,
house duo.
Formerly called the End of Time Observatory, they eventually
got tired of explaining their lengthy name.
“We just started using EOTO as a nickname, but then some
Japanese fans told us it means, ‘good sound,’” Hann said, explaining how the
acronym stuck.
The two met up through their work with The String Cheese
Incident, a Colorado-based jam band that formed in the early ’90s.
“I would go out there for practice and I would stay at Travis’s
house, and usually we would finish practice at 6 or 7 at night, and there was
just the whole night open, so we just decided to jam on the instruments that he
had at his house,” Hann explained.
The after-practice jam sessions soon took on a life of their
own, running until 4 or 5 a.m.
“At some point… we thought, ‘oh this might be cool to do in
front of an audience,’” he said.
So two years ago, the two took their live show to the stage.
Hann plays an acoustic drum set, djembe, and electronic
percussion pad, while Travis plays guitar, bass, and four keyboards. Both also
have remote controls that allows them to work the on-stage computer from a
distance, which allows them to mix and remix live, controlling their mics and
signals using software called Ableton Live.
They’ve embraced technology to the point that they’ve decided
to post all of their performances from their latest west coast tour, which just
started last week, online at
www.livedownloads.com
.
Their sound is a bit hard to put a label on, but that seems to
suit Hann and Travis.
“When I’m playing, I feel I call out to something beyond what’s
in the room or what’s on the radio,” Hann said. “It’s more extraterrestrial
than terrestrial. But usually when someone asks me to describe it, I’ll go
through the genres of music, but in the moment or when it’s happening, we just
kind of give it up to sort of the bigger things that are happening in the room
or in the audience.”
Using a combination of traditional instruments and technology,
the shows are never pre-rehearsed, pre-recorded, or looped, so each performance
is unique, and often as much a surprise to Hann and Travis as it is to the
members of the audience.
“Just about everyone thinks that it’s pre-recorded, so we’ve
been trying to get the word out about that more,” Hann explained. “We think
that’s the part that’s special about what we’re doing, because there’s so much
dance music that DJs spend hours on just getting one sound, to tweak it in just
the right way… so to pull it off live, and on the fly, is quite a feat.”
But there’s one commonality between each and every performance
— the dance floor will be packed.
“It’s definitely different, and it’s an all-night dance party,”
Hann added.
The performances generally attract a diverse, younger crowd,
which is both a positive and negative, as the performers have to work hard to
make their sound appeal to a wide range of music lovers.
“We really liked the music a lot and really dove into it pretty hardcore, so it’s a lot of work to get out there and win over a whole new group of fans, but it’s really been catching on.”