Home Video Screens Koyaanisqatsi at Soda Bar

Author

By Mary Leary

Publish Date

Nov. 16, 2010

Home Video looks about to start. A film projects the sandstone of Horseshoe Canyon onto a sheet behind the stage — unusual imagery to introduce synthesized and guitar/drum amplification pumped so deep my blood cells react before my ears do. "I Can Make You Feel It" needn't beg its case, although at first I'm more impressed by the video and...throbbing than I am by the music. But I'm rapidly converted, suddenly feeling sorry I never saw New Order.

There's just a handful of watchers, about half of which account for the whereabouts of bill sharers Primitive Noyes and Cars and Trains. Happily, one girl is shaking it in triple time to HV's catchy synapses. At the bar, patrons who were less than totally engaged by the other artists (with the exception of PN) are riveted by the juxtaposition of the band with Koyaanisqatsi. Using a film often associated with Philip Glass is a smart way to show HV's '80s roots while intimating higher aspirations: somehow Collin Ruffino's inviting tenor, Jim Orso's whirlwind battery of beats, and David Gross's keyboards/bass/sequencer comprise irresistibly textured thumps that feel loftier than what Rolling Stone deemed the "PG-rated fluff" of Depeche Mode. Although one guy at the bar sneers, hands over his ears, the majority seems impressed by HV's classy response to a minimal turnout: denouements are greeted by raucous cheers. By the stirring climax of "The Automatic Process," most of us are hooked.