EOTO; the original name means “End Of Time Observatory” and/or “good sound” in Japanese. This should give you a slight perspective into the many inspirations that support what these two guys do. Musically genius to the core, Michael Travis and Jason Hann come from various professional backgrounds in drumming, bass, and technical perfection to name a few. Hann accredited his past training in Mali, Haiti, and Korea to name a few places when I asked him about his drumming background before the show. This is in addition to the start of his career as a professional musician at age 12. Travis, of course, a founding member of String Cheese Incident, comes from a vast history of world travel, drum circles, and decades of professional music experience. Adorned with Macbook Pros, a Les Paul, Toca Djembes, Korg Drum Pads, mixing boards, keyboards, Paiste cymbals, etc., Hann and Travis are revolutionizing electronic music with live break beats and nasty bass lines combined with top of the line mixing equipment. Trying to further explain what all they are doing live on stage would merely be an attempt at scraping the proverbial teeth of EOTO.
PSY-FI, Mimosa, and Marty Party opened the dimly lit show with an overlapping, non-stop triple set of hard- hitting Dub Step, Glitch, and Break Beats. They set the stage quite well for EOTO. I even saw Hann and Travis out in the crowd observing their openers and mingling with their fans. As always, EOTO pushed the
envelope till just before two a.m. Behind them was a plethora of 3D visual effects seeming to be inspired by the likes of Alex Grey, Venosa, and Scramble Campbell.
I watched in amazement that night at the way EOTO made the crowd bounce and move with their heavy bass beats or a subtle voice-changing effect made by Hann on his Korg. Intricacies that would blow anyone’s mind are constantly thrown into the mix. I was surprised all night long, overtaken at times and pulled into a mosh-pit style dance party that moved like a gyrating jello mold, and we all were vital ingredients to the mold. You’ve got to see, hear, and feel all that EOTO has to offer. It was truly VIP box seats in the “End Of Time Observatory.” Thank you EOTO! Don’t Stop.
