Film archivists have a term for the chemical reaction that causes old film stock to deteriorate. It's called "vinegar syndrome," and it often looks like pools of luminescent liquid eating away at the celluloid. When the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Phoenix screened a restoration of Mario Roncoroni's 1915 film Filibus with an original live score by avant-garde dieselpunks RPM Orchestra, the visual quality of this silent movie was excellent — full of striking colored tints and silvery B&W photography — except for a distorted scene in the middle of the film that suffered from a bad case of vinegar syndrome. It was the best part of the screening. A film shot in the same spirit as Louis Feuillade's classic serials like Les Vampires, Filibus is the story of a cross-dressing female thief who pulls off heists from her secret airship. RPM Orchestra's score added a playful and immersive energy to Filibus, but what made their music particularly entrancing is how they responded to the quality of the physical film. Whenever there were scratches or distortions the music would take on a similar dissonant quality. When the vinegar syndrome was at its worst, RPM Orchestra wailed a cacophony that would make Merzbow reach for some earplugs. It was sublime.