Fest keeps eye toward tomorrow

Hunched over at the knees, derriere front and center, the red-head in the painted-on rubber pants summarized the proceedings with a snarl.

"Dig my future," the very unbashful frontwoman for L.A. electro rockers UltraViolet hissed at the Beauty Bar on Thursday night, before slithering offstage and rubbing herself on the unfortunately thin crowd.

UltraViolet was one of the bright spots of this year's Amplify music conference, a four-day fest that largely spotlighted up-and-coming acts with an eye toward tomorrow. Most bands were works in progress, and potential was paramount during the event, which took place at four different venues downtown.

At times, the fest was a study in contrasts. Early Wednesday night at the Beauty Bar, Montana's Good Night Sunrise held court with wide-eyed, impossibly earnest guitar pop, and they were so young, they couldn't even sell their merch in the venue because they weren't old enough to be in the 21-and-older club.

Some of their fans, also in their teens, watched the show from the alley next to the outdoor stage, clinging to the venue's chain-link fence, hovering beneath the barbed wire.

The band was followed by their polar opposites: portly Portland punks Attack Ships on Fire, a group of middle-age dudes in the vein of their heralded citymates Poison Idea. "Welcome to the all-fat portion of the show," their singer quipped. "We're you 15 years from now," he added before the band lunged into excellent, '80s-style punk with rapid-riffs and domineering bass lines.

Heavy on modern rock and emo outfits, the best acts at Amplify were the ones who weren't so easily categorizable.

Las Vegas' young Stargasm impressed at Jillian's on Wednesday with a blend of thrash riffs, burbling techno beats, operatic female backing vocals and a black metal aesthetic reminiscent of Norwegian industrial metallers Kovenant.

Oddball Henderson beat boxer Verbal Ase turned in one of the most memorable performances at Brass on Thursday, lurching to the stage like a zombie in a long black wig and blood-spattered lab coat, dropping loopy rhymes about having an affair with Minnie Mouse and rapping with a hand puppet smoking a giant spliff.

A bit more orthodox, but no less compelling, was Las Vegas' The Strip, a promising Guns N' Roses inspired four-piece with a ceaselessly brash frontman who flaunted his obnoxiousness like a merit badge.

In addition to showcasing dozens of acts, Amplify doubled as a band competition, with 10 groups selected by fest staff and record industry types to appear at the finals at Jillian's on Friday night for a chance to win some $25,000 in cash and prizes.

With their fat, flatulent beats, vocodered backing vox and Peaches-esque oversexed bravado, the aforementioned UltraViolet eventually took top honors.

Hey, maybe the future is now.

Jason Bracelin's "Sounding Off" column appears on Tuesdays. Contact him at 383-0476 or e-mail him at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com