With dementia setting in from sleep deprivation and many pairs of exhausted eardrums ringing on the heads of attendees, the fifth day of shows concluded with a mega-showcase at Pianos, where a dozen bands performed. What was expected to be a relatively mellow Saturday night (considering that there were no punk or metal groups performing) was especially loud, maybe one of the loudest shows of the fest. The PA was cranked and distorted, but this didn’t stop the crowd from filling up the space and jamming up the entrance for most of the night — with the exception of Ted Nesseth of the Heavenly States, whose unreasonable volume drove most people out in a scurry. Most performances were less memorable than the shining sets by Great Northern (an L.A. poppy-shoegazer boy/girl band with serious sex appeal), Nouveau Riche (a clash of R&B and indie rock, kind of like Teenage Fanclub backing up the Brand New Heavies and guest starring Jay-Z), and War on Drugs (an anti-folk hipster duo that brought to mind an acoustical set of Mercury Rev songs performed by Suicide). Those people with enough endurance to stick it out through the nine hours of music were rewarded with one of the strangest acts of the festival (and that’s saying a lot).

Maybe it’s because the last show didn’t start until well after 2 a.m. that the crowd was only comprised of about ten people, but it’s more likely most people saw a guy playing the least sexy, least rock & roll instrument known to man and did a quick 180 back to the meat market of a club next door. Using no pre-recordings, Brian Wolff, otherwise known as the one-man band called Wolff, painted a colorful canvas of sounds through a beaten up, duct-taped tuba. With the assistance of guitar pedals — delay, distortion, bass-synth, envelope filters, phaser, whammy pedals -– a simple full-bodied horn was digitally transformed into loops that mimicked the electro sounds of Björk’s Post, with airy Sigur Rós lulls creating a gentle, eerie ambience. A transducer mike in the mouthpiece picked the soft vocals of the former member of Austin’s Drums & Tuba, while an acoustic guitar pickup inside captured the high and low frequencies that he tapped on the rim and bell of the horn for percussion. After building off his newly developed beat, he blew a meaty bass line, clicked his pedal to capture it, and switched to a horn solo, disguised as a synthesizer. A lone breakdancer moved rigidly to the beats in the center of the floor, while a few onlookers leaning up against the wall scoffed appropriately at the weirdness of the scene. Those who understood the intricacy of the music at hand were certainly impressed, but most were just confused. The goofy pop-locker explained later that he had no idea what the tuba guy was doing and that the that he was just “caught up in the groove.” The few others who looked past the gimmick and picked up on the true genius of Wolff would go home late in the night, excited to tell their friends about the underdog of the fest and ready to have sweet dreams filled with the futuristic songs of a very eccentric artiste.

Click here to see videos of Wolff in action on his MySpace page.