Ahleuchatistas guitarist Shane Perlowin remembers the "week of purgatory" in mid-May, when the trio was left without a drummer. Because the band had made a year's worth of concert commitments — including tonight's show in Cleveland — he and bassist Derek Poteat scrambled to find a replacement by placing an ad on their Myspace page. Meet Ryan Oslance, who saw the online plea in his Illinois home. "I thought the band was done. But miraculously, this guy sees the ad and sends us an MP3 of his playing. He was like, 'I gotta come down and show ya.' Then he drives down, he impressed us, and we really hit it off," says the 30-year-old Perlowin. "I really feel we have a reinvigorated spirit, now that Ryan is on the scene."Based in Asheville, North Carolina, since 2003, the band has released four instrumental CDs, including a recently remixed version of its second disc,
The Same and the Other. While critics have hailed the group's music as "tightly coiled agit-punk," Perlowin describes it as "progressive punk-jazz whatchamacallit" that doesn't follow any songwriting formula. "There's not the typical amount of repetition and repose that a lot of music has. We don't milk a hook for what it's worth. And we don't make 20 songs out of every great idea," he says. "The melodies are extremely angular, but they're not typically tuneful. It's just enough for you to get into the music." At tonight's show, the threesome takes the stage after opening acts Daniel Francis Doyle of Texas, Tentet/Octet and Novelist, both from Buffalo, New York, and Planets, from California. Then the Ahleuchatistas — whose name is a tribute to a Charlie Parker song as well as Mexico's Zapatista revolution — launch into a "rhythmic assault" of originals. Think of a musical cross of Captain Beefheart and King Crimson, says Perlowin. "There's a small community of groups making hyper-composed, avant-garde, insane rock music," he says. "It's craziness." The jams start at 7 tonight at Pat's in the Flats, 2233 West Third Street. Tickets are $6. Call 216-621-8044 or visit
www.patsintheflats.com.
Fri., June 20, 7 p.m., 2008
