On a rainy November evening in 2000, a small venue in a mid-sized city filled with an unlikely crowd: programmers in hoodies, experimental electronic musicians, net.art provocateurs, and curious locals who had picked up a flyer promising “live branching logic.” The advertised act, IfThenElse, had been making waves in underground tech-and-art scenes for years, but their “2000 EACFLAC” performance became something more than a concert — it became a cultural knot where software, performance, and participatory ritual braided together. This post reconstructs that night, unpacks what made the event distinctive, and considers why IfThenElse’s work still matters for artists and technologists today.
.log file generated by the software to prove that the rip was done securely and without errors.The album’s title, borrowed from computer programming logic, sets the stage for a record obsessed with choices, speed, and the feeling of being a "glitch" in a mechanical world. the gathering ifthenelse 2000 eacflac
Line-up: Anneke van Giersbergen (Vocals), René Rutten (Guitars), Hans Rutten (Drums), Hugo Prinsen Geerligs (Bass), and Frank Boeijen (Synths). Rollercoaster (4:45) Shot to Pieces (4:10) Amity (5:57) Bad Movie Scene (3:49) Colorado Incident (4:53) Beautiful War (2:32) Analog Park (6:05) Herbal Movement (4:10) Saturnine (5:11) Morphia's Waltz (6:37) Pathfinder (4:38)Source: EAC/FLAC Technical Note The Gathering IfThenElse 2000 EACFLAC — A Night
To understand the significance, we must first look at the artist. The Gathering is a Dutch band formed in 1989. While they started as death/doom metal, their evolution through the 1990s was nothing short of revolutionary. By 2000, they had shed nearly all metal tropes, embracing a sound built on atmospheric keyboards, ethereal guitars, and haunting vocals. When a file is tagged with "EAC," it