An east Los Angeles venue is packed, and everyone is punching the sky. In front of them, Pedro Alejandro Verdin has ditched his bass guitar and is convulsing to a shattering four-by-four pulse. His get-up lands somewhere between a grotesque Paul McCarthy sculpture and the cowardly lion from The Wizard of Oz, while frontperson Aarum Alatorre’s voice shreds in a way that reveals a hardcore punk pedigree. Offstage, the duo run Pacoima Techno, a far-reaching multidisciplinary project that’s sometimes a rave, sometimes radio, sometimes improv theatre, and something beyond all of the above.
Tonight the pair are joined by regular collaborator Tania Ordoñez, AKA producer and performer Soltera, who co-founded the CASA/TECA label with them. The clipped and crunching kick of her track “En El Club” is being mixed live by DJ Wax/ Wane, and she’s stalking the space in a
