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SUNDAY
Fantômas
You won’t be able to get your neck tattooed, buy naughty lingerie, or score a pack of cloves within a hundred-mile radius of town tonight: The people who could ordinarily help you in such endeavors will be lining up at the Black Cat, clutching secondhand medical-oddity textbooks to their chests in hopes of getting all of Fantômas’ members signatures thereon. The extreme-rock supergroup—Faith No More’s Mike Patton, the Melvins’ Buzz Osborne, Slayer’s Dave Lombardo, and Mr. Bungle’s Trevor Dunn—has a new album, Delirium Cordia, which features exactly one hour-and-14-minute track. It’s made up of sound collages that intersperse long stretches of boredom with unexpected moments of terror—which is much like life, if you think about it. The piece (“song” doesn’t seem to cut it here), “Surgical Sound Specimens From the Museum of Skin,” is apparently about going under the knife, and the CD’s accompanying booklet helps the illusion along with some oddly beautiful photos of a real operation. Heaven only knows how this will come across live, but Patton recently told a newspaper he’s “still the same scumbag [he] was,” so no worries there. Opener Melt Banana has never had a nonblurry photo taken of its live show, thanks largely to singer Yasuko Onuki, the best evidence yet for my hypothesis that at some point humans mated with demons. (OK, the theory is primarily useful for explaining a couple of ex-girlfriends, but still.) Bring earplugs—unless you want to go to the hospital for real—when Fantômas plays with Melt Banana and End at 8:30 p.m. Sunday, April 4, on the Black Cat’s Mainstage, 1811 14th St. NW. $17. (202) 667-7960. (Andrew Beaujon)