The Deaf was a band I was in briefly before I moved to Austin. The Deaf was the brainchild of fellow art-student Wil Boston who recruited me to play bass and drummer extraordinaire Clay Stinnett to play percussion. We essentially played noise with the concept in mind to play as if we could not hear what we were doing. Like deaf people might. Wil sat at a table with his lap-top producing random digital noise while Clay and I banged away paying no mind to what the other was doing. This was actually kind of difficult for Clay and I who were not use to being in noise-based bands and had a tendency to begin “following” each other periodically during a performance. We sensed an undercurrent of Doom Metal, and despite Wil’s insistence that there be nothing musical happening when we performed, we were only barely able to contain our musical sensibilities.
This particular show at Rubber Gloves in Denton went very well, in my opinion. The club was packed and Clay decided to haul in a huge strip of sheet metal, roughly half the size of the stage, from behind the club so as to use it as a percussive instrument. Toward the end of the set Clay and I unfurled the sheet metal, he on one side of the stage, I on the other and we waved it over the front of the stage creating an incredibly loud racket of smashing metal. The sheet metal waved insanely close to the audience in front who had no place to escape decapitation or a serious slashing. Even though nobody was hurt, after the fact, it seemed a ludicrously dangerous stunt. It had made a nice spectacle though. And it made a very nice sound. Unfortunately there are no recordings of The Deaf that I know of. If anyone has any I would be pleased to hear them.
I don’t remember who made this flyer but it’s a favorite from my entire collection.
Jan 312012