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It’s the 4th Tuesday of February and that can only mean one thing. I’m late paying my car insurance again! Woohoo! Actually I kid, what I really mean to say is Happy National Spay Day, Knoxville!

Gosh, has it been a whole year already?

Today’s the day to raise national awareness for the ever present problem of animal overpopulation. You are encouraged to take at least one of your pets in for spaying or neutering. And you were worried you would have nothing to do on your lunch break. But seriously, the local animal shelter euthanizes around 10,000 unwanted animals a year. You can help be part of the solution. Think of all the puppies and kitties. Especially the kitties. Especially the kitties that think the crawlspace under my house is their own after hours feline boudoir of love. I think there may be a kitty porn ring being run from down there. Ever heard a tom and tabby in the throws of passion (like maybe from under my living room)? It never sounds like either party is very happy about their participation. I think spaying and neutering would be doing these cats a favor.

Also, it's a little known fact that Bob Barker takes a shot to the crotch every time an unwanted pet is put to sleep (it's all starting to make sense now, isn't it?). So, if not for all the little cute and fuzzies out there, do it for an 83 year old man's dangly bits.

And moving on:

What happens when you combine a couple of MacBooks, some Ableton Live software, half a dozen midi control switches and keyboards, a rack case full of blinking lights and knobs, a couple of stringed instruments, a drum kit, some bongos, and two members of a big draw jam band? Very confused hippies. Actually what you get is Eoto.

Eoto is the brainchild of Jason Hann and Michael Travis from the very popular String Cheese Incident. They just so happened to be playing a show last night at the World Grotto. I have a bit of fascination for the art of real time musical loop creation and went to see how the big boys do it. And do it they did. As local electronic musicians G-Roc played their opening set, I was trying to gather if everyone else in the place knew what was going to happen here. I had visited Eoto's Myspace earlier in the afternoon and was well pleased that what these guys were pulling off was nothing like SCI. It was refreshing to hear a definite tangent being taken in a side project as opposed to a ‘more of the same, just different’ approach. I almost got a word in with Travis, who manned most of the technical gadgets that evening, and he almost got to talking about the ease of using Ableton Live when some guy cut me off and began asking what the Cheese was doing in the summer. Although it sort of grated my glutes a little, the musician just rolled with it and kindly exchanged words with the obvious fan. With a huge jam fan base, I imagine smiling and saying the same things over and over again with an honest grin in your cheeks is just a necessary skill. Both Hann and Travis were very accessible to all the crowds well wishes and conversation, most of which had nothing to do with what I was interested in hearing them talk about, but that was my problem and not anyone else’s.

When the show started, it was easy to see why these two excellent musicians decided to take on this left field-ish electronic musical endeavor of theirs. They were having a ball. The format is one of total improvisation. The music is just pure never heard before dance beat, made hot and fresh while you watch. I overheard a fan ask if they were going to play a track off of Eoto’s album, to which the reply was no. Neither would be able to remember how to play it.

All and all the entire thing worked. The audience of mostly young neo-hippies, think homemade skirts, dreadlocks, faded Widespread Panic t-shirts, etc. did not seem disappointed at all at Eoto’s performance and danced like a bunch of club kidz. They even broke out the plastic glow jewelry. To me it makes perfect sense. If you can enjoy a good stomp to an extended twenty minute guitar solo, why wouldn’t you find your groove in a continuous wave of homemade house music? The point being: I dug it.

Tonight’s Picks: Scott McMahan sings a mighty pretty song. Check him out at the Downtown Grill and Brewery tonight.

Until next time, this is Strapping Young Lad, reminding you to have your pets spayed and neutered.