Week 9: What Has 17 Arms

Live at Easy Tiger Beer Garden, Winston-Salem, NC

This week’s session began with a question and ended somewhere beyond language. What Has 17 Arms is part improvisational epic, part plant-powered ritual, and part late-night cartoon fever dream.

We were joined by the elemental Chaisaray Schenck on drums, who summoned entire weather systems from behind the kit—thunder, propulsion, precision. Joseph Dowdy spun sonic glyphs through saxophones and flute, and Ryan Hsu continued his rise as modular mage-in-residence, shaping electricity into pulses and glimmers.

During setbreak, a small tropical plant stepped into the spotlight, wired into a Roland Juno synth and singing softly while the audience refilled their glasses. Afterward, the band returned and built a piece around the plant’s voice—an interspecies jam, equal parts patience and propulsion.

The night unfolded like chapters in a myth you’re not sure you dreamed:

Bebot’s Big Night, Gorgomel’s Castle, Solution Modality, and Planterlude III – Hummingbird Fiesta all point to a universe of riddles and logic loops, fidelity tests and shimmering flights.

Thank you for being part of this strange, beautiful question.

Photos by Ryan Hsu

View over the Modular Synth