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Hovercraft Leads Sonic Trip to Parts Unknown

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The Troubadour seemed in danger of vibrating off its foundation and slipping into the ether on Saturday, as Seattle trio Hovercraft set a course for inner space with its trancelike, chaos-flecked sounds and visuals.

Forget about hooks; Hovercraft didn’t even have songs, at least not in the traditional sense. Its current album, “Experiment Below,” lists titles, but Saturday’s 40-minute instrumental set featured one continuous wave of sound. Anonymous on the darkened stage, and further camouflaged by projecting a film of rapidly changing, repetitive images (insects, astronauts, explosions, eyeballs, etc.) onto themselves, the players veered from low, ambient rumblings to driving sheets of screeching, feedback-laced fury.

Though unconventional, Hovercraft’s music was surprisingly varied, almost melodic at times, with a powerful meditative effect that felt strangely peaceful. Emphasizing the lack of human personality, the members have taken the droidlike pseudonyms Campbell 2000 (guitar), Dash 11 (drums) and Sadie 7 (bass). The last is actually Beth Leibling, wife of Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. Their desire to let the music do the talking was briefly threatened during a tour last year when Vedder played drums with the group and people showed up just to see him.

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Vedder wasn’t around Saturday, but the audience was more interested in reaching noise-induced nirvana anyway. When bliss arrived, however, it was abruptly snatched away by the silent shattering of a lightbulb on the movie screen, which signaled the cosmic journey’s end.

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