I discovered the French band Slift during the pandemic, and they quickly became essential listening for me. Lush but heavy, undulating and grinding, Slift takes me to places of the mind I haven’t been before, doing all the things a heavy psych band should do, but with special shimmer in the guitar sounds and electronica, and one of the best rhythm sections I’ve ever encountered. So when I saw that (at last!) they were coming to the United States and playing Elsewhere for their very first NYC show, I was thrilled, and they most certainly did not disappoint.
The whole evening of music was great, starting out with Brooklyn rockers, Native Sun. I only caught the second half of their set, but their non-stop shredding sensibility and high energy instantly coaxed me to get closer to the stage; they understand how to put on a good show. On their website, they are described as a trio, but there was a second mystery guitarist up there with the core three, who was almost bouncing off the amps. Bassist Justin Barry often put his foot up on the bass drum, locking eyes with drummer Nico Espinosa as they kept the driving beats coming. (Side note: Espinosa had the largest ride cymbal I’ve ever seen!) And of course frontman Danny Gomez leapt into the audience during their last song, falling to his knees right in front of me, screaming into the microphone. All was throughly raucous and satisfying!
The second band, You Said Strange, are also French and touring the US with Slift, and it was their first time playing the East Coast. The stage lighting became darker and moodier for their set, which perfectly fit their unique sound, an interesting hybrid of 80s-esque goth and psych, with tight vocal harmonies from brothers Eliot (guitars and vocals) and Martin Carrière (bass and vocals). Definitely the most danceable music of the night, but with songs that stretched out in length and scope, with many layers of guitar distortion and noise. At the end, You Said Strange left the stage one by one, waving good night to the audience, and leaving their guitars still pumping out a flurry of feedback.
Last but of course not least, Slift took the stage welcomed loudly by a very enthusiastic audience. I stood up front, firmly focused on studying Rémi Fossat’s prowess on the bass (being a bassist myself), but I noticed that the moshers behind me moved with less violence than the typical pit, slowing down and spacing out when the music did. It was hard to believe that only three musicians were making the sounds coming at us. Slift’s music hit the crowd in big deep waves, with guitarist Jean Fossat (Rémi’s brother) moving back and forth from madly strumming to fiddling with knobs of electronics. Rémi Fossat and drummer Canek Flores were relentless and locked in, at times playing with rhythms and syncopation like free jazz swirling within the wall of sound.
Slift at Elsewhere
The set was made up entirely of tracks from their 2020 album, Ummon, the first five songs reflecting the order they are played in on the album, leading off with the ethereal title track. There was also a seemingly new track in the mix perhaps hinting at new music to come before things picked back up on the album with “Altitude Lake” and the set closing with the triumphant 13 minute album ender “Lions, Tigers and Bears.” The Fossat brothers’ urgent and often times dual vocals soared above the sparkling cacophony throughout, and I think the band and the crowd would’ve loved to have had the show go on far past the 11pm curfew, but alas. Hopefully Slift will be able to return to the U.S. (and NYC!) very soon.
Scroll down for setlist, fan shot videos and pics of the show (photos by Kevin McGann)
Setlist: Ummon, It’s Coming…, Thousand Helmets of Gold, Citadel on a Satellite, Hyperion, (Unknown/New Song), Altitude Lake, Lions Tigers and Bears
Live From the Poison Factory, the debut album from the noise punk band Anxious Wave, takes you on a frantic, thrashing, and often pained journey. Featuring Mikey Belcastro on guitar (formerly of Product of Waste and Violent Sons), Sam Okon on bass, Dylan Lagory on drums, and aggressively anguished vocals and lyrics from Brandon St. Pierre, this record often feels like a fever dream, or a nightmarish hallucination. They spent the majority of the 2020 lockdown writing and recording the album and the psychic stress of the pandemic (and life in general) is certainly percolating here, but with plenty of surreal fun and a sense of humor, too.
The opening track, “Complex Needs,” sets the tone of panic bordering on the grotesque with driving drums and bass, relentless guitar noise, and St. Pierre’s tortured lyrics: “Gotta lotta stuff going on…and I’d be better at it without my cognition on…Drowned to death, in my own shit, my own piss, my own kids…Complex needs. For a complex disease. / I’ve spent weeks, am I the cure or am I the weak?” The song has a fantastic video as well, created by Monster Makeup Productions, a Providence-based collective of horror filmmakers that focus on LGBTQ storytelling.
Beyond “Complex Needs,” standout tracks to me included “Mirror Bed,” a danceable, more light-hearted song about good old-fashioned relentless sex, with a great almost jangly guitar hook from Belcastro in the verses, that explodes into a more raw wall-of-sound chorus: “Put my foot on the floor,” St Pierre bellows. “To stay steady, move steady / She always wants more. I’m ready. She’s ready.” Other faves of mine include “Carnivore” and “Void Boyz,” both catchy punk anthems driven by Okon’s ever-undulating bass lines, Lagory’s steady prowess on the drums, and Belcastro’s wide range of guitar sounds. His guitar work reminded me of The Cure, Nirvana, and Helmet at different points on this album…that’s a lot of different guitar sounds…my head is spinning!
Of all the songs on Live From the Poison Factory, though, “Executive Dissector” will be the track I listen to on repeat the most. With additional vocals from Marina Phom of Panzerchocolate (who shared a split seven-inch with Anxious Wave back in 2019), I can’t help but scream along to the raucous repetition in the chorus: “Controlling, controlling, controlling, controlling me / Patrolling, patrolling, patrolling, patrolling me.” The final lyrics of “Executive Dissector” give the album its name: “From the poison factory, the boy is satisfactory.”
Live From the Poison Factory is loud, frightening fun, and far better than just satisfactory work from Anxious Wave.
Live From the Poison Factory is out now via Nefarious Industries and available from Bandcamp and on all major streaming platforms.
My introduction to the Brooklyn-based trio, Thick, happened this past spring at Warsaw when they opened for Australian booze loving punk wild men, The Chats. I was instantly struck by how high guitarist/vocalist Nicki Sisti and bassist/vocalist Kate Black can jump while singing and playing, and their energy was infectious. They got the entire ballroom bouncing off the walls with their special brand of pop-punk. (Drummer/vocalist Shari Page was also electricity made corporeal, but hasn’t yet figured out how to jump up and down while behind a kit, which I don’t fault her for. She, too, is amazing.) My partner left their merch table that night with 5 Years Behind, which was unfortunately released in March 2020, a most unfun time to release such a great album.
But! But…Thick has just come out with a new full-length release, Happy Now, which as much as I adored 5 Years Behind, I think this new work offers a really interesting tension between the frenetic and fun drive of their music and the somber and heartbroken reality of most of the songs’ lyrics. I’m still bouncing all around my kitchen listening to Happy Now, but I am acutely aware listening to the words that there is some deep hurt roiling under the rockingness of it all.
I mean, hey, we’ve all just gone through (and are continuing to navigate) the craziness of this pandemic, and the mental unrest present in the lyrics of Happy Now’s first track, “Happiness” (yeah, right…we’re happy!) honestly reveals an uneasy emotional tone that I completely identify with right now: “Happiness from the outside in…it fills my gut but it leaves me thin…Look at me, you’re just like me…you fill my guts but you leave me with doubt.” Yep, here we are…and I appreciate that the women of Thick are barreling straight into the honest intensity of the present moment (and still rocking it!).
But beyond any pandemic-related shared trauma that’s resonating with me as I listen (and re-listen) to Happy Now, I still have to say that I shake my head after cathartically enjoying all eleven tracks and say “Who hurt you?” Happy Now gives an example to all of us of how to frenetically muscle one’s way through the hardest times. What do you do when you’re “crying everyday …you’re not to blame…I’m fighting …fighting for change…take it day by day,” as the standout track “Wants & Needs” declares? The serious lyrical tone continues in “Disappear”: “You disappear when I’m right here…swallowed by voices that I can not hear.”
And while a lot of the lyrical themes are dark, there is also the glimmer of holding onto hope and the ability to triumph despite being labeled as a “loser” or “less than” which is what the song “Loser” centers around. This was the first single from the album and came with a cheeky sports themed video that also featured FTA crew Jeanette D. Moses and Kate Hoos in front of and behind the camera.
I am grateful to Thick for writing and playing raucously through such difficult times and subject matter. Get Happy Now in whatever form you consume music. Carry this painfully exuberant music around with you and feel grateful for how much Thick rocks!
Happy Now is out now via Epitaph Records and available on all major streaming platforms.
I felt beyond lucky and privileged to be at Central Park SummerStage on Sunday 8/21 for the final performance of the Wild Hearts Tour which featured Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen, and Julien Baker with special guest Quinn Christopherson opening the shows. I got the opportunity at the last minute since our fearless Full Time Aesthetic leader, Kate Hoos, works at SummerStage and ended up being asked to sling merch at the shows. Between that and rushing back and forth to take pics of the artists, she needed someone to step in to help capture the full experience; I could not be more grateful that she reached out to me to write about the final night for this piece. As the Wild Hearts tour tote bags declare,”I went to the Wild Hearts Tour and all I got was emotional,” and that was the truth. So let me (and my fellow Kate) take you on this sentimental journey that was the final performance of this extraordinary tour featuring so many inspiring artists.
Quinn Christopherson began the night solo onstage, laughing as he explained he was going to kick things off with his longest and saddest song. “Raedeen,” a heart-wrenching ballad about losing his sister to drug addiction, immediately introduced Christopherson’s earnest intensity as a songwriter. His collaborator Gracie Gray (on guitar and backing vocals) joined him for the rest of the set, finishing off with the infectious synth-pop tune, “Celine,” written for his mother’s love of karaoke. Christopherson hails from Anchorage, Alaska, a trans man born to Native Parents; his mother is Ahtna Athabascan and his father is Iñupiat, which he proudly proclaimed to the crowd mid-set. His joy onstage, his beautiful voice, and the direct vulnerability of his lyrics make Quinn Christopherson an artist I was excited to be introduced to; I hope to see and hear more from him soon.
Julien Baker took the stage next, blazing through songs from her most recent album, Little Oblivions, as well as a few tracks from her first release, Sprained Ankle; she started off her set with the title song from that first record. The crowd was instantly mesmerized; I was surrounded with people in Julien Baker t-shirts that seemed blissfully transported. While the other Kate is a fan and has seen Baker perform before (see her recent pics of Baker in London), I’m a bit of a newcomer to her music. I was thrilled to see her belting out her heart-wrenching melodies and moving around the stage with an urgent energy. Her prowess on guitar is beyond impressive and there was absolutely no shortage of shreds. She wasn’t much for banter during the set, but she did reflect how bittersweet it was to be playing the final show of the tour. She finished with “Ziptie,” and the stage was suddenly flooded with musicians from Van Etten and Olsen’s bands and crew members dancing exuberantly. Baker flashed the crowd a gorgeous smile before slipping offstage with her “tour family.”
Julien Baker
Angel Olsen had the penultimate set of the night; she and Sharon Van Etten have traded the headliner spot on the tour for its duration. I feel a bit late to the party with Olsen; I know her music mostly from the duet she recorded with Van Etten, “Like I Used To,” and Aisles, an EP of eighties covers she released last year (which is extraordinary—her version of Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without a Face”—damn!). But having now seen Olsen live, I will be buying her most recent album, Big Time, when the next Bandcamp Friday rolls around in September.
Olsen and her band were instantly eye-catching wearing jumpsuits in various bright colors, Olsen’s sunshine yellow. Her gorgeous voice mesmerized the crowd, starting off with “Dream Thing.” My favorite song of the set, though, was “Shut Up Kiss Me,” off of her 2016 record My Woman; Olsen’s playful delivery got everyone dancing. She has a wonderful sense of humor as well, joking between songs about how her band had abandoned her that day in pursuit of New York City bagels. She finished off her set with the bittersweet “All the Good Times,” and left everyone wanting more.
Angel Olsen
But more there was! Sharon Van Etten and band played the final set of the night, and it was revelatory. Van Etten exuded rock star charisma in a sequined top and black leather jeans, strutting back and forth across the stage, reaching to the audience with sultry cat-like charm. She began with “Headspace” from her most recent album We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong, urgently crooning out the refrain, “Baby don’t turn your back to me,” the crowd reacting viscerally, followed up with the triumphant hit “Comeback Kid” off of her 2019 release Remind Me Tomorrow.
Sharon Van Etten
The set was a wonderful mix of songs from her last two albums, finishing off with her poignant and beautiful power ballad, “Seventeen.” Beyond her gorgeous voice and superstar charisma, though, Van Etten exudes warmth. She emotionally declared how much she admired and loved all the other musicians and the crew of the Wild Hearts Tour, and how bittersweet it was to be saying goodbye to the experience (even though she also seemed excited to go home to her partner and five-year-old son who apparently started kindergarten this week).
For the inevitable encore, Van Etten came out solo for the quiet and melancholy “Darkish,” and then called out Olsen for their hit duet “Like I Used To,” which Julien Baker also joined in on special for this show, playing guitar. The stage was flooded once again with every musician from all four sets, and crew members, everyone dancing and singing along, smiling through tears, sad to let the night go, but so grateful for a wonderful summer of the Wild Hearts Tour. When it was all over, I stumbled out into Central Park with the rest of the crowd, drunk on the love of a truly exceptional evening of music.
Scroll down for setlists, fan shot videos and pics of the show (photos by Kate Hoos)
Angel Olsen setlist: Dream Thing, Big Time, Ghost On, Right Now, Shut Up Kiss Me, All Mirrors, Go Home, All The Good Times
Sharon Van Etten setlist: Headspace, Comeback Kid, Anything, Come Back, No One’s Easy To Love, Tarifa, Born, Hands, Every Time The Sun Comes Up, Mistakes, Seventeen Encore: Darkish (solo), Like I Used To (with Angel Olsen and Julien Baker)
I had the pleasure of seeing Death Valley Girls for the first time at St. Vitus in August 2019, and it was electric. Pandemic living being what it is, I haven’t had the chance to see them again until last Thursday’s show at TV Eye, with Cumgirl8 starting off the night. Both bands were in the mood to celebrate and seemed truly thrilled to be sharing a stage. The crowd was transported by the raucous love fest of it all.
I had heard some of Cumgirl8’s music before, but seeing them live is essential for the full experience of what they’re creating. The self-described “sex-positive alien amoeba entity” were a feast for the eyes, sporting outfits that offered a mix of lingerie, bikinis, leather pants, and very high heels. When they’re not rocking out, these multi-talented superwomen design their own club-inspired fashion line, recently featured in Vogue. So there you go! Veronika Vilim (on guitar) and Lida Fox (bass) are also models, and the whole band (including Chase Lombardo on drums and Avishag “Avi” Cohen Rodrigues on guitar) have special projects galore: a webseries, other bands, activism, you name it! It’s obvious Cumgirl8 is more than a band—they are punk rock meets very sexy performance art meets multimedia tycoonery, and all of it is infectious fun. The crowd at TV Eye were falling down while dancing and trying to get a good shot of the action on their phones. By the end of their last song, “I Wanna Be,” the band piled on top of each other, a Jenga-like structure of limbs and alluring chaos.
All of that might’ve been a tough act to follow, but not for Death Valley Girls. TV Eye’s signature velvety red stage curtains parted again, as guitarist Larry Schemel and drummer Rikki Styxx began to stir up a spell of driving beats and noise, while singer/guitarist/keyboardist Bonnie Bloomgarden and bassist Sammy Westervelt clung to one another, turning upstage to watch Styxx begin the magic with her drums. I remember this moment of embrace and centering from Bloomgarden and the band back in 2019 as well. Death Valley Girls shows have a vibe of ritual about them, and if you’re in the room, you will be intoxicated by the otherworldly alchemy of their music.
Fittingly, Bloomgarden wore a dress printed with what seemed like old movie posters about aliens. I only own one Death Valley Girls album (their most recent full-length release) Under the Spell of Joy, which I adore, but strangely songs from that record were missing from their set. But no matter, Bloomgarden and company shook me into a trance anyway, with a mix of songs from older albums and newer material. Bloomgarden and Westervelt fell to their knees at one point, drifting into paroxysms of rock calling to extraterrestrial visitors. Bloomgarden also leapt off the stage near the end of the set to get closer to as many people in the crowd as she could, hugging many people and singing right into the faces of her fans, who sang along in adoration, like believers at a tent revival.
Hopping back on stage, Bloomgarden saw the women of Cumgirl8 dancing in the wings, and she beckoned to them. Suddenly the stage held both bands, the Cumgirl8ers jumping around like they were possessed as DVG kept on with the relentless drive of their frenzied music. My only complaint was that it was over too soon! Death Valley Girls left me wanting more…hopefully they will be back in NYC pretty damn quick, and maybe their friends Cumgirl8 will share the stage with them again.
Scroll down for pics of the show (photos by Kate Hoos)
