Maxwell’s Music House rocked chiptunes on Wednesday

My introduction to both Maxwell’s and chiptunes this week.  Double thumbs up! 

Chiptunes is a genre I was originally introduced to by the ever-cool Mr. Alex Williams on a trip to Maker Faire last year.  This music form leverages the 8-bit classic sound of 80’s and 90’s video games.  A favourite, being rocked here by DEADBEATBLAST, is the original GameBoy.  Combined with the visuals it made for a kick-ass and out of the ordinary show.

Maxwell’s, is right in the strip behind Phil’s on King St in Waterloo, just south of University Ave.

They’re open 7 nights a week, I believe.  You should definitely sign up for their once-a-week newsletter email (right on their homepage).   You get the whole lineup in one shot.

James Bastow, Ben Brown, and Alex.  Looks like a gang of toughs at the bar.

I missed the first act, dotEXE, but saw lots of this guy, jansaw, who hails from Guelph.  I believe he is using the guitar here to deliver the audio from the chip.

DEADBEATBLAST was working the…

visuals, which are all queuing up on the laptop to be projected. 

It’s a cool mix of audio + visual.

Lots of cool touches at…

Paul Maxwell’s place.

As you might have guessed, my brutha, Dave White, was in on the mission.

After jansaw, came StarPilot, who was…

very animated, and…

yes, that is a mask.

James and I have a friendly co-opetition going to get the best photos out and about.

Meta…photography.

Even Dave was rocking the iPhone, because the visuals were really good, especially…

when DEADBEATBLAST was…

rocking…

the…

house.

His GameBoy is, I suspect, a lot like…

Alex Williams’ GameBoy…

that has been modded to include a line-out jack (bottom left) and a cool(er) backlight.  Shown here with the LSDJ cartridge that facilitates getting the desired sounds.

Thanks, Maxwell’s, for stepping a bit outside the ordinary to provide something really unique in our own back yard.

Happy making,

DW