I must confess that I was a bit worried about the International Chiptune Resistance being housed at Deadtech for their Chicago performance. While Deadtech is a staple in the Chicago niche electronics scene and run by fantastic folks, it's also not much larger than my living room, has significantly less ventilation and, even more frightfully, no bar. It's a great place for exhibitions, gallery showings, more 'ponderous' musical events and so on, but it's not the first locale I think of when it comes to accommodating energetic, frenetic and rockin' artists like chip-musicians Bit Shifter and Nullsleep.

It turns out my fears were somewhat unfounded. Sure, Deadtech was sweltering, to the point of technical failure, and the absence of a reliable wellspring of beer was sorely missed, but all artists involved put on a fantastically entertaining show that managed to whip the normally-staid audience into a sweaty fervor.

Of course, the show didn't start with such intensity. In fact, we were all sitting in chairs when opener Saskrotch took the 'stage' (really, just an extended table housing his laptop and the other band's electronic tools). Rob, Deadtech's proprietor, had anticipated that the musicians would give an introductory lecture on the hows, whats and whys of their flavor of chip-music, but these plans were swiftly ditched when the bands appeared at the venue well past their scheduled performance time.

Upon being commanded to lose the chairs, we ambled up to revel in Saskrotch's breaks and bleeps. While it's previously been noted that I'm quite a fan of his work, the audience didn't appear to be feeling it. Maybe it was just that he was opening and that the opener always gets a slightly chilly reception, or perhaps the audience wasn't expecting the deluge of noise, kicks and aural violence he occasionally houses. After all, his set skewed towards more hardcore breaks than say, the more accessible, friendly blips of his more mellow material (such as his magnificent In The Next Room Lies Our Destiny). Regardless, he had a substantial and lengthy performance that certainly pleased me.

Bit Shifter took the stage shortly after, pausing only to lament the lack of enthusiasm for Saskrotch & to give the audience time for a beer run. Let it be said that, under these circumstances, Bit Shifter's beats practically command listener's legs to move. While the opening of his set had a few in the audience emphatically bobbing their heads, people really hit the floor when he pulled out Bad Surge*, and it all snowballed from there. A good chunk of the audience just wouldn't stop writhing, and often encroached dangerously close to a treacherously placed extension cord, to the point where I couldn't help thinking that the show would be abruptly halted upon the accident severing of the instrument's current.

Luckily that never occurred, and Bit Shifter managed to finish off his set with a slightly exasperated, and astonished look, on his face. I don't blame him - the crowd's reaction was ten times that of what I remember from his last show. Maybe it was the flow of his songs, or reworking of specific tracks, but his performance and sound was much more energetic and enthralling than it was on the Data Destruction Tour.

With only one act left, Nullsleep confidently stepped up to the plate and exclaimed that his purpose was to get us partying so hard that we'd be severely hungover at work tomorrow. If infectious melodies and enthusiasm were wine, I'm sure we all would have been dramatically hungover the next day, but sadly most of the beer pilfered prior to Bit Shifter's set had already been quaffed. Nonetheless, Nullsleep roped the audience into dropping their inhibitions, luring them to him by stating "There's entirely too much open space in front of me! I'm from New York City - everyone crowd on in!" They abided and, from there on out, he had them cinched up and hanging on his every note, even more melancholy tracks like Starforce Romance.

It's worth noting that, since the Data Destruction Tour, Nullsleep has changed a bit of his tour gear: the trusty old chipped copy of Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt has been swapped out for a Famicom cart that plays SD memory cards. While he was explaining this new component to the audience, show wrangler Rob sarcastically shouted out 'sell-out!'. While that certainly isn't true, I can't help but feel that a bit of his stage mystique has left along with those NES carts. It almost feels like the difference between playing an emulated game with a joypad and playing a game on its honest-to-goodness console & controller - it seems more tangible and authentic. Instead of seeing Nullsleep fiddling with the chips and a NES console, now he just presses a button on the top of the Famicom cart, and that's more-or-less it. While I more than understand and empathize with the reasons for the change (mostly that it's much, much, much easier and not so error-prone), I can't help but slightly lament the loss of the charming old chips, even if it's for the best of the performance.

Apart from this, the rest of his act seems unchanged from the last tour. I didn't hear much in the way of new material, but there were old favorites, and of course he brought out his crowd-pleasing keyboard-guitar. No, not a keytar, but a standard computer keyboard that he had slung around him, allowing him to punch the keys as if it was a standard guitar. When he brandished this data entry instrument, the audience pressed forward, everyone trying to catch a glimpse of this oddity which made trying to see his performance even more difficult!

Unfortunately, the party was cut short by an overheated speaker, rendering his sound 50% incomplete. Nullsleep kicked out one more song before packing up his gear to peddle merchandise to the eager masses. Or at least, they pulled out the remnants of their merchandise. Like last year's tour, Chicago was the first city to get the short end of the stick, as many of the artist's CDs had sold out while they were in Portland. Saskrotch was the only able to meet a fraction of the demand, but that's because he was burning discs from his laptop while we hung around! Myself (as well as many in the party of seven I managed to drag along) were only able to acquire some smartly designed shirts and patches, instead of blowing all of our cash on albums and compilations.

All in all, it was an extremely worthwhile night. Despite the band's exhaustion (they had been touring non-stop for approximately one month now), both Nullsleep and Bit Shifter managed to muster up a show that transcended its stuffy environment, inspiring and infusing the crowd with energy and enthusiasm. Which, considering that these guys were rocking out with not-much-more than a couple of Game Boys, is quite the feat.

Saskrotch has an extensive number of tracks available for download at his website. For more on Nullsleep, visit his site, nullsleep.com and you can find Bit Shifter's latest album at Nullsleep's label, 8-bit Peoples.

A small gallery of images from the show can be accessed here.

Those reading this prior, or on, June 8th, 2006 can still catch the closing show of the International Chiptune Resistance (with guests Mark DeNardo, minusbaby and Glomag) in New York City. For more information, please visit resist.8bitpeoples.com.

* To the best of my recollection it was Bad Surge however, the setlist is a bit blurred in my mind.