In darkness, the members of Black Falcon Destructor await the movie projector to start, giving the cue to begin playing their unique style of rock music to fans at Rotolo’s.
The movie starts and as a fetus is studied on screen, the music builds an atmosphere of continued climactic ascent and descent patterns without lyrics.
Distorted guitars make noises that Les Paul never wanted anyone to hear, which are brought about by over two dozen guitar pedals that provide the members with an unlimited availability to contort sound.
The drums are rhythmically abstract, but begin to form a cadence after a few minutes pass.
Suddenly, there is an eruption of sounds and anyone within earshot cannot help but watch as the music eerily serves as a soundtrack to a new film showing a drug addict going through withdrawals.
The end of the show, a rallying, triumphant fanfare, goes on for 10 minutes, and after the last noise is created, the performance stops abruptly and the band members pick up their equipment and exit the stage.
One of the three guitar players, John Wygle, an electrical engineering sophomore, said that the band’s show is basically an audio/visual art project, and describes the sound as “avant garde guitar texture music.”
Other members of the band include guitarist Ian Williamson, an international trade and finance senior, bassist Paul Knox, a philosophy junior, drummer Matt Heroman, a psychology sophomore, and 22-year-old guitarist Stefon Bergeron, who also plays in the band Meriwether, which shares its practice space with Black Falcon Destructor.
The band formed last November when Bergeron and Wygle went to a friend’s studio and recorded two unreleased albums of “ambient noise” using only two guitars and a plethora of effects pedals.
After that jam, they wanted to start a band with the same kind of sound and called on Williamson to play bass after he had been running the projection screen for the duo.
Heroman came next on drums and was available after the recent breakup of his band Soulhouse, in which Bergeron played for a while as well.
After that, the group played a show at Rotolo’s under the name of The Red Orchestra.
The band then learned of another band already named The Red Orchestra, so they took an inside joke to come up with the name Black Falcon Destructor.
Finally, Knox came in to replace Williamson on bass, and Williamson switched to guitar, forming the current lineup.
Rehearsal is practice for the stage as the lights are turned off and the film is played.
Also, they tape their rehearsals as a way of doing homework.
“We study our taped practices as a guideline for what we need to be doing the next time we get together,” Knox said.
The group has different individual perceptions of what the band does, although they all agree on one thing.
“We never play anything twice,” Heroman said. “We are consistent but not monotonous and we never write any music down.”
Bergeron thinks that what the band does is not meant to have any message or impress anyone.
“We put on the most boring, one note show and people come out and watch it,” he said.
Wygle proudly agreed.
“And we’re better than most other music in Baton Rouge,” he said. “We want people to see us and realize how easy it is to start a band, and hopefully, they’ll go start one,” he said.
The band is scheduled to play at The Spanish Moon on May 18 and is in the process of renting the Union Colonnade Theatre for an upcoming performance.