by Kate Hoos | Oct 3, 2021
Nihiloceros performing at Econolodge (photo by Kate Hoos)
This just in! Nihiloceros have been crowned the hardest working band not just in Brooklyn, but on earth. And on top of that, they just released an incredible new EP, Self Destroy, that we loved here at FTA (read our review) and I personally have not been able to stop listening to. To celebrate, they recently held a release show at EWEL (aka Econolodge aka East Williamsburg Econolodge) a practice space turned DIY space, and the home of the popular streamer Bandnada. The lineup for this show was positively STACKED and featured two of my local faves, Gal Fieri, and Desert Sharks along with Kissed By An Animal who is a band that has been on my list for a while but I had yet to get out to see.
East Williamsburg Econolodge
Gal Fieri was up first to kick the night off. They are a brand new band who debuted just about two months ago and has hit the ground running, playing quite a bit lately around Bushwick and already cementing themselves as one of my local favorites. I’ve been lucky enough to catch a few of their shows now and I’m always that guy saying to them after their set “WHEN ARE YOU RECORDING?!” (thank you all for indulging me on that). I don’t mean to be too much of a nerd about it (though that is my entire “brand” and the “brand” of this blog, it is true), it’s just because I have really enjoyed their sound- quiet to loud dynamics, heavy bass riffs sans guitar, snarky as hell lyrics- so I am anxious to be able to jam them in FTA headquarters whenever the mood strikes.
The early stages of a band are always so cool to watch because you can really see a group come into their own as they figure out their stage presence and how they function/write/etc together, so it has been fun seeing this at their shows as well. I’m also excited to see how their song writing progresses to see what they come up with next. Their sets now are still on the shorter side but that is to be expected when you’re new out of the gate. All of the current songs pack a punch, with the aforementioned bass riffs driving the sound and soulful vocals completing the package, and I definitely think they have a lot of really good things to come in their future. They are staying busy and have several shows over the course of October, check their Instagram for more details. (I also have plans to make a listicle of all of my favorite bands that are just bass/drums/vocals so I for sure want to include Gal Fieri once they have recordings.)
Gal Fieri at EWEL
Desert Sharks are absolutely one of my favorite bands and its always a good day when I get to go to one of their shows. They were back in action as a quartet again, with the recent addition of rhythm guitarist Cait Smith (formerly of No Honeymoon), and she fit in perfectly with the group, thickening up their sound with her crunchy Les Paul. Fresh off the release of two covers (read our reviews for “Voices Carry” and “20th Century Boy”), they have been out gigging again and have been hinting on social media at making a new record, to which I say emphatically, YES PLEASE!
They played a good amount of songs from their excellent 2019 album Baby’s Gold Death Stadium, and EWEL being a small space, it almost felt at times their sound was going to burst right through the walls, particularly when vocalist Stephanie Gunther would belt out one of their HUGE choruses. Just as I was thinking “will they play one of the covers?” they kicked into the opening notes of “Voices Carry,” taking the classic 80s new wave jam by the Aimee Mann fronted ‘Til Tuesday into fuzzed out grunge territory; it sounded even better live than on the recording. While the two covers they’ve released so far this year have definitely held me over, I am very anxious for new music from them and this show only strengthened that. They will be performing again 10/14 at The Broadway along with Substitute Scene label mates, No Kill for their album release.
Desert Sharks at EWEL
If you can find a band that is more energetic, supportive of everyone else in the music community, works harder, and has songs catchier than Nihiloceros, I’d love to hear about them but I’m really not sure that band exists. In fact I know they don’t. If you follow the band on social media, you’ll know they are always posting about other bands shows and you’ll often see singer/guitarist Mike Borchardt out and about taking pics at many other shows too. This boundless energy and support translates to their own shows too and you could tell this was very much a personal night for the band. Borchardt told me on the choice of venue “[EWEL] has been one of our favorite spots to do shows for a while. Run by great people. It always feels like family,” and that was obvious too in the choice of the supporting bands on the lineup.
From the moment the first notes rang out until Borchardt collapsed on the ground in sheer exuberance and exhaustion at the end of the set, there was no respite from the energetic onslaught filling the small space. Borchardt handles most lead vocals but is backed up a fair amount of the time by bassist Alex Hoffman (aka one of the most creative and clever bassist currently in Brooklyn), who does a few turns at lead as well. They hit a wide selection of their songs, both from the EP and not, and fired at nothing less than 200% for the entirety of their blistering set.
The band was also joined by co-collaborators on the record for the songs they worked on. Stephanie Gunther of Desert Sharks (who also plays in Murder Tag with Borchardt) came to the mic to sing “Odie” which features Hoffman on co-lead vox with her and the eventual weaving of all three vocalists together. (Gunther also contributed to the song “Baby Teeth” serving as co-writer and vocalist). Gillain Visco of shadow monster also contributed to two of the songs on the record, including lead single “iamananimal,” (as well as “Halfway Human”) and was there as well to sing with the band. Again, it was obvious that this night was very clearly a family and personal affair for the band.
They are currently taking as close to a hiatus as is possible for them aka they are laying a bit low for a few weeks as Borchardt travels and they do some press for the release. But they will be back on 10/23 for a performance for the Wavy Awards at Abrons Arts Center and on 10/30 for a Bands Do BK Halloween show.
Nihiloceros at EWEL
As mentioned, I had not yet seen Kissed By An Animal, which now that I have seen them bums me out a little bit for my past self, ha! “Energetic fuzzgaze,” are the first words that come to mind and they were the perfect closer for this night. They self describe as a “Brooklyn based four piece dedicated to playing fast and loud,” and yes loud and yes fast but fast like amped up shoegaze, not fast like a hardcore band. But this certainly is not a bad thing at all (and I actually would prefer it to a lot of hardcore), and the influences listed in their Spotify bio- The Misfits, The Cure, Dinosaur Jr, A Flock of Seagulls- all align here for a very delightful blend.
Another striking feature of the band is the intricate and colorful art work which is very integral to their albums of course, but also to their live show as they use animated projections during their set for whimsical and added effect. The band is described in fact in their bio as “the auditory counterpart to the universe of illustrator/musician Dima Drjuchin. Dima is known in the art world for this rich surreal scenes plucked from an alternate dimension existing exclusively in his own mind.” And indeed the images are surreal and the projections with the combination of a well loved smoke machine made for a very cool visual vibe all through their set. It has been a low key dream of mine to so intentionally incorporate visuals like this into a band I’m in, but so far it hasn’t happened yet. This inspired me a lot though so perhaps for my next project. As for their next outing, you can catch KBAA on 10/16 at Our Wicked Lady to celebrate A Very Special Episode’s record release.
Kissed By An Animal at EWEL
Thanks to my job working various roles in various NYC venues, as well as a photographer/blogger, I get to see a lot of bands and be at a show most nights of the week, oftentimes in big venues. That is a cool experience and I do value that I get that perspective too and I consider myself very lucky for all that I get to do no matter what realm I get to do it in. I wouldn’t trade this job/life for anything (because trust me there were other eras in my life where I had terrible jobs that left me very disconnected from all of this and I was miserable). But while all of that is pretty awesome to say “I got to do XYZ big show for work in a big venue” etc, there really is nothing like coming home to a DIY space. 100 shows in a large venue will never compare to just one in a small “ask a punk” DIY spot, or mean half as much, as standing shoulder to shoulder with friends and by extension, family. There is absolutely no comparison at all.
Scroll down to see pics of the show (photos by Kate Hoos)
GAL FIERI
DESERT SHARKS
NIHILOCEROS
KISSED BY AN ANIMAL
by Kate Hoos | Sep 29, 2021
Action Park (photo by Kate Hoos)
I love going to DIY shows and that will never change. No matter how many times I see big artists in big venues, nothing feels quite like a DIY show in a tiny dive bar with no stage and a loveable cast of characters in the audience. (I had just shot Julien Baker at Beacon Theater three days prior to this night, so I’d just been in a huge venue with a positively massive stage. But also this turn of events was oddly probably fitting since she came from the DIY world herself.) I also love when I get to branch out to adjacent scenes to NYC either through playing shows myself or through shooting events.
In this case, I was in Valley Stream on Long Island which is actually geographically very close to the five boroughs and the music scene here, but unfortunately (mainly due to things like epic traffic for those with cars, and the expense and often inconvenience of the LIRR for those without) there isn’t always a ton of crossover of bands or fans from Long Island to Brooklyn and vice versa. Even though I am lucky enough to have a car myself, the infamous traffic makes it really difficult for me to get out there often, as much as I would like to be there more.
But as luck would have it, I did find myself able to get out to Long Island on a recent Friday night for a show featuring some stalwart DIY bands from the Long Island community, all of whom have been active in one form or another for years. Readers will also know that I really love a show that ranges sonically and has a wide gamut of styles; this one was absolutely perfect in that regard. From the hazy instrumental doom gaze of Blueblack, to the whip smart pop punk of Action Park, who were celebrating their album release and tour kickoff, it was a great show with plenty for everyone.
Action Park at Railroad Inn
Blueblack kicked things off and it had been a number of years since I had seen them, the unfortunate roadblocks I mentioned above often making it hard for me to get out to their shows. I was very happy to have ended this dry spell because I’ve really loved them for a while, ever since an old band of mine played with them in 2016. I have long been a fan of instrumental music and am always down for something dark, moody, and musically complex. The set was all of those things, with the measured and precise intensity that Blueblack has for their music; they know exactly where to push and pull to bring the maximum effect to the moment. And thanks to the lack of lighting, the band almost appeared to be in shadow as they played, but that perfectly suited the mood. They played material from throughout their catalog, hitting favorites like “Hawkwing” from 2016’s Destroy and that alone definitely made the trip out there worth it.
While Blueblack doesn’t really go firmly into metal territory to my ear, rather sticking more closely to the post hardcore side of things (which you’ll never hear me complain about), I’d still love to see them on a bill together with Pelican and Russian Circles. Those are two of my favorite bands and both are titans of the instrumental rock world. While both of those bands do tend to head more into the chuggy metal realm, it’s all still heavy and dark vibes so this theoretical bill with the three of these bands would really work well in terms of sonic moods and execution. I personally am going to start manifesting this to happen because I would be front and center at that show for sure.
Blueblack at Railroad Inn
Too Many Voices played next and I had been totally unfamiliar with them before they show. They had been described to me as “Revolution Summer mid 80s Dischord” melodic hardcore and I’d really say this was a spot on assessment. Their set was passionate and intense, with a clear nod to 80s bands like Rites of Spring, and they would have been right at home on a bill with any of the Revolution Summer bands.
I have said it before in the pages of this blog that pop punk is not my usual first choice and that is true. So if I am going to listen to a pop punk band or go to a show, it better be damn good to pique and hold my interest. Fortunately there is no worry about that with Action Park, and I’m a big fan. They bill themselves as “sad but rad,” and these guys are experts at the genre.
Onstage they are locked in perfectly with each other which makes for a really exciting performance. Offstage they are loveable and goofy, also sporting a fair bit of humor and cheek (which made for an interesting, but definitely fun time when we were doing a portrait session outside. I’ve never said “look at the camera!” so many times in a shoot before- ha!). And even though only their drummer was alive in the 80s, they also have plenty of love for the pop culture of that decade as their name and show outfits will attest. (Their name a reference to Action Park aka the infamously dangerous theme park in New Jersey that operated from the late 1970s until 1996.)
This being their release show, the excitement was palpable in the air and they hit the ground running from the very start of the first song and didn’t let up for a single moment throughout their set. Vocals are handled by three members of the band- guitarists Bobby DeQuillfeldt and Matt Riley along with bassist Vinny Carriero- and they all trade off on lead vocals while backing each other up when not on main singing duties which makes for a nice mix. They blazed relentlessly through a good portion of their excellent and super fun new record, You Must Be This Tall To Die (read our review), and also played a few new songs that are not on the record (hopefully an EP will hold us over before their next full length).
Action Park at Railroad Inn
The band was so welcoming to me, as a visitor to their scene, and I also know how hard they work to keep things going in a place where it’s not like Brooklyn where there are shows every night of the week and often a multitude of options to choose from each night too. It was obvious in how keyed in on the band the audience was that this was a tight knit group of friends supporting friends and I couldn’t help but be swept up in the comradery of the night. I’d love to see these guys aim for the stars and be on stage at the big punk festivals and touring consistently with big acts. They already have the heart as well as the energy and stage presence to be commanding in that sphere and I am absolutely manifesting that for them (along with my instrumental dream show mentioned above).
A fourth band, Two Man Advantage, closed out the night (they also share their drummer with Action Park), but sadly I wasn’t able to stay for their set. But hockey themed hardcore?? Sign me up! I do hope to catch them again at another time though.
I have an interesting life that largely revolves around live music and I feel so lucky for that. Sure it’s definitely true that getting to work/play/shoot/see shows in big venues is a really cool experience and I’m grateful for every opportunity I’ve ever had to do all of those things in a large scale setting. But you can be sure that if there are DIY shows happening, particularly at a dive bar under the train tracks, I’m going to be there. And no matter what, I’ll never not want to be.
Scroll down for more pics of the show (photos by Kate Hoos)
BLUEBLACK
TOO MANY VOICES
ACTION PARK
by Kate Hoos | Sep 25, 2021
Flogging Molly at Pier 17 (photo by Kate Hoos)
The punk rock road show hit the beautiful open air venue on the rooftop of Pier 17 this past week for a show complete with breathtaking views of the city and the Brooklyn Bridge. Energetic Celtic punks, Flogging Molly, co-headlined the show along with the legendary folk punk/alt rockers Violent Femmes, and were joined by a great opening lineup as well.
Hometown favorites Thick kicked things off for the early crowd, bringing their infectious, catchy songs to the stage. They received a warm response and I’m sure made a lot of new fans among the crowd. I remember seeing them just a few short years ago at the beloved (and now sadly gone) DIY space/dive bar, Don Pedro, and being rocked out of my socks, knowing that they were going to be a band that went far even then. It is very cool to see that that assessment was correct and seeing them playing stages like this.
This is their first tour back and in support of their outstanding 2020 debut full length, 5 Years Behind, which was released by Epitaph just days before the first wave of Covid lockdowns hit. So many bands had this happen to them, a great album came out and they were unable to play shows or tour around it, so I was doubly happy to see them back on stage in peak form despite every roadblock the last year and a half has thrown at musicians. I know it’s only going to be a matter of time before they are headlining stages of this size themselves.
Nikki Sisti of Thick
Suave and smarmy punk rock super group/cover extravaganza, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, hit the stage next to bring their “Elvis in Vegas” style cheeky rock n roll to NYC. The membership of the band has changed quite a bit throughout the years and for this tour, the only founding member performing was lead singer Spike Slawson (Swinging’ Utters, Filthy Thieving Bastards and Uke-Hunt). Slawson was joined by plenty of punk legends who all come to the group with extremely impressive resumes: bassist CJ Ramone (Ramones), drummer Andrew “Pinch” Pinching (The Damned, English Dogs), along with rhythm guitarist Jonny “2 Bags” Wickersham (Social Distortion) and lead guitarist John “The Swami” Reis (Rocket From The Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes). If you’re out of breath from reading that impressive list of bands (which isn’t even exhaustive), it was even more exciting to see all of these guys together on stage.
I’ve been listening to these guys on and off since the 90s but I hadn’t even realized the lineup had changed so much recently. But it was all good and I was particularly happy about the addition of Reis as I really love Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes; I’ve also been known to jam quite a bit of Rocket From The Crypt in my day too. But even having listened to MFATGG for a long time, this was actually my first time seeing them play. Slawson is a commanding presence on stage and he shaked and shimmied all over while the rock solid band held the line behind him. They barreled through a slew of punk versions of everything from Dolly Parton (“Jolene”) to Judy Garland (“Somewhere Over The Rainbow”) along with more contemporary pop and punk numbers. I couldn’t help but chuckle every time someone in the crowd yelled “play a cover!” and had a great time during their set.
Spike Slawson of Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Violent Femmes are one of those bands that I just never remember a time when I wasn’t familiar with them. Ever since I got into alternative rock/punk (whatever word you want to ascribe really), they have always been there in my consciousness. It of course was first through their big hits, “Gone Daddy Gone,” and the legendary single “Blister In The Sun,” from their 1983 self titled debut that I first knew about them. I’m sure many people who discovered them in the 90s and later had these songs as an entry point too. I later explored deeper into that first record and their overall catalog when an old band did a cover of “Prove My Love,” and I got to know much more of their music.
Founding members Gordon Gano (guitar, lead vocals) and Brian Ritchie (bass, backing vocals) are still going strong as they head into the fifth decade of the band’s existence. They are now joined by newer members of the group, drummer John Sparrow (first drummer I have seen to play a barbecue grill!), and saxophonist/multi instrumentalist Blaise Garza (who over the course of the set played both the largest sax I’ve ever seen and the smallest). They played a wide ranging and really fun mix of songs from across their over 40 year career including the aforementioned hits “Blister In The Sun,” and “Gone Daddy Gone” along with the 1992 hit “American Music,” as well as delving into their newer music from their most recent album, Hotel Last Resort, which came out in 2019. It was a real treat to see these legends in action.
Gordon Gano and Blaise Garza of Violent Femmes
Flogging Molly came to the stage to close out the show and the crowd really picked up to a fever pitch then. This was the band’s first NYC show since 2019 and you could tell they were having the time of their lives being back in the Big Apple, a fact that frontman Dave King remarked on more than once. The fans were rowdy and excited, shouting along to every single song, with no shortage of crowd surfers keeping the folks up front busy along with the security crew.
King and the band worked the crowd and kept things dialed up to 110% intensity from start to finish. They ripped through a set packed with favorites like “Drunken Lullabies,” and “What’s Left of the Flag.” The fans were also treated to their very first single ever “Salty Dog,” as well a brand new as-of-yet unrecorded song “Croppy Boy.” They dedicated another favorite, “Float,” to the fans much to the delight of the crowd. When they played “If I Ever Leave This World Alive,” I couldn’t help but get tears in my eyes having gone through a tough personal loss just a day before the show; yes it was emotional, but it was right what I needed in that moment. And isn’t that really the true magic of punk and just any music in general? For the right song to come to you exactly as you need it? I do really think so.
The weather had started to shift late into Me First and the Gimme Gimmes’ set and held through Violent Femmes, but by time Flogging Molly got on stage, the rain began to appear (it is visible in some of the photos in fact) with King quipping in his delightful brogue “that’s how you know the Irish are here, it’s raining.” Fortunately the stage was completely covered and a heavy duty backdrop was quickly put in place to shield the band and equipment from any adverse affects (aka electrocution!). But the crowd didn’t seem to mind one bit, never losing an ounce of energy even as the rain got significantly heavier halfway through the set. I was up against the barrier so in just the right spot to stay mostly dry as the wind was blowing the rain into the back of the tarped off stage and blocking the first few rows of the crowd from the worst of it, even though we were standing under open sky and it was pouring on the rest of the audience.
Flogging Molly at Pier 17
Flogging Molly absolutely is a band that has worked so hard over the years to get to where they are now, but you can tell they never forgot their roots. They still play as though they are on a smaller stage and want to interact with their fans on a deeper level. King came to the edge of the stage repeatedly to point and interact with fans as best he could in the realm of a large stage with a security pit separating the band from the crowd. That didn’t phase him though and he even asked security guards to hand over guitar picks to young fans up front more than once. At the end of the night, as a recording played in the background, King danced on stage and looked delighted as the rest of the band waved goodbye gratefully to the audience and he again came over to the edge of the stage to connect with fans. A man standing next to me yelled “I got through cancer because of you!” and you could really see and feel how much that touched King to hear that. I always appreciate seeing bigger bands play these shows and still really try so hard to connect with their fans; it really means a lot to me.
And with that, I was off into the still rainy night. For a little while at least, I had not a care in the world as now I really was getting wet as I walked through the late night streets of Manhattan on my way home. This too is the magic of punk, to be able to take you out of whatever it is in the rest of your life that is unhappy or stressful and leave you with a smile on your face. I am forever grateful that I not only get nights like these, but that I get to call this my life.
Scroll down for pics of the show (photos by Kate Hoos)
THICK
ME FIRST & THE GIMMIE GIMMIES
VIOLENT FEMMES
FLOGGING MOLLY
by Kate Hoos | Sep 23, 2021
Man Or Astro-Man? performing 2/21/20 at Market Hotel (photo by Kate Hoos).
I have a considerable archive of images of live shows that have for one reason or another never been published before, so I have decided to start sharing some of those because why let them just sit on a hard drive or in a box of 35mm negatives? I will share photo sets as I have time and as I sort through things (as some of the older parts of my archive are very disorganized) and write up any details I may remember from the particular show.
For our second edition of the show throwbacks, here is Man Or Astro-Man? who also so nicely just released brand new music this week for the first time since 2013, the double single, Space 1991. And there’s really no better way to celebrate that than with finally getting these pictures out into the world. I went to this show in February 2020 aka the waning days of the “before times,” and with how unsure things were at that time along with the growing anxiety I started feeling soon after (and not having shot it for any particular outlet at the time), the pics sat in limbo for a year and a half. That is just a waste, because I love this band and this photo set, so what better time than now to share?
The title track “Space 1991” is pure straight up MOAM, their classic surf punk stylings on full display. “Tenth Planet” is also true to form of their sound, but with a bouncier, decidedly more pop rock, surf infused vibe overall, and is also one of their limited tracks to feature vocals. And even if this is a bit of a divergence for them, they pull it off seamlessly and it doesn’t sound out of place at all, rather a look into a new direction. I’d compare that really to track one being more close to the Dick Dale milieu, with track two in The Beach Boys vein in both the sense of vibe and sound. Which is not to say that is a bad thing at all, I can take some poppier MOAM just fine! I really loved both songs, as well as the atmospheric link track “Memory Machine,” a trippy spaced out noise tie between the two songs.
Space 1991 cover.
The band had this to say on their Bandcamp page about the release:
“Over the last few years, we’ve put together a ton of new recordings and also we’ve also always had this endlessly bubbling vat of material that has been waiting to be curated and cataloged,” say the band. “This new single is the first bit of all this crap. Much to the detriment of our sanity, we probably toured more than any band in the 1990s and we were constantly on the road for a decade. This was mostly due to us just being punk rock kids from Alabama who wanted to go absolutely anywhere we could. We never imagined we would get to travel to nearly 50 countries and meet so many amazing people over the years. Anyway, while on those travels, we did a ton of studio and radio sessions that we plan on getting out at some point including the 8 BBC Peel Sessions we did. This ‘Space 1991’ single sort of bridges the gap between all the old and new crap. Basically, it’s our very own take on the whole right-before-having-a-mid-life crisis space rock genre that all the kids are so crazy about these days.”
As for the show, in hindsight, with so many very sad and stressful things having happened in the world and in my own life since then, I don’t remember a ton of the specifics of this particular night. I think my brain just has compartmentalized stuff that happened immediately around the time of the initial lockdowns so it isn’t easily recalled; I’ve found my sense of time is very off for a lot of 2020 in general and I have a hard time pinpointing specifics at times. But one need not remember the exact happenings to know a MOAM set was an incredible time and the pictures speak to that as well. In any case, fans know they are a band that doesn’t ever play a show at anything less than 200% and will never dial it back so when you go to see them, you are going to get well more than your money’s worth. I wish they toured up this way more often (in general, they hadn’t been as often as I’d have liked before Covid too) because I have seen them twice now, but still have not been sated and absolutely am not shy about wanting more.
This particular show was also an after party for the film launch of Brainiac: Transmissions After Zero documentary. While I did not see the film that night (and unfortunately still haven’t), it is about the legendary band, Brainiac, who sadly had their career cut short in 1997 upon the sudden death of their singer Tim Taylor. Also on the bill that night were psych/garage/electro project Monograms, and Tim Harrington of Les Savy Fav who DJ’d. Again, since my memory is a bit fuzzy on this night, I had totally forgotten about the DJ set but I was reminded of that fact when Harrington himself mentioned it at the recent show Les Savy Fav played at Market (see our review/pics here).
Coco The Electronic Monkey Wizard.
In the spirit of wanting more live action, I watched as many of MOAM’s live videos as I could find on YouTube more than once during the pandemic. While it wasn’t the same, it did at least hold me over somewhat. I also never realized rhythm guitarist, Avona Nova (aka Samantha Paulsen), was in other bands of the decidedly mathy/post punk variety. I explored some of that work, picking up Mean Queen on a Bandcamp Friday, and also digging into We Versus The Shark, who put out Goodbye Guitar in 2020 (their first release since 2008). I do love getting to hear music that is different from what I had already known from a particular artist so this was a cool treat to discover; if nothing else, the first few months of the pandemic left me with plenty of time to explore and find new favorites.
Man Or Astro-Man? live on KEXP.
I will now leave you all to enjoy these photographic images at your computer terminals while I await here on Earth for the time when Man Or Astro-Man? releases their next transmission of new tunes in the audible range of human hearing.
Space 1991 is out now via Earth Libraries and is available on Bandcamp and Spotify.
Scroll down to see more photos of the show (pics by Kate Hoos)
MONOGRAMS
MAN OR ASTRO-MAN?
by Kate Hoos | Sep 22, 2021
Algiers at Saint Vitus (photo by Kate Hoos)
Algiers is currently on tour supporting their exceptional 2020 release, There Is No Year, and hit Saint Vitus for a pair of shows; we caught the second night on 9/15. The album was released prior to the ravages of 2020 fully setting in, and it would be easy to look at the title and say it ended up being a telling prediction because the world as we knew it shut down. But that is far too simple a take and could never really be true because what a year 2020 was, with massive- and much needed- examinations of ourselves and our society unfolding almost daily as the year progressed. I couldn’t help but think of the opening lines of “Dispossession,” “Run around/Run away from your America/While it burns in the streets/I been here standing on top of the mountain/Shouting down what I see…” at many points along the way during 2020 and well into 2021.
This is a band that never shies away from their politics and the record serves as a powerful document of that. It is also a bonafide opus from a band that can’t be pinned down by any single genre label and that effortlessly infuses elements of gospel, post-punk, soul and experimental noise into their sound. While Algiers sounds incredible on a record, the best way to really experience the full force of their music is to see them play live, because it is exactly that, an experience rather than just a show. And seeing them in a venue like Vitus, where it is still intimate enough for them to interact with the crowd in a direct way, only enhances that. Rare is the band that can go so hard and be so captivating on stage and rather than tiring the audience out, leave them wanting more at the end of the show.
Openers and tour mates, Zen Mother, kicked off the night with a dark, brooding wall of sound. They are a “two-piece experimental, electronic rock project inspired by French composer, Igor Wakhevitch,” and are based right here in Brooklyn. I had been totally unfamiliar with them before this show, but they were a welcome discovery. Their sound was all at once heavy, harsh, operatic and doomy, but with a very measured control. They also dip very considerably into industrial territory and I even heard grunge elements at times, particularly in sweeping guitar passages that reminded me of 90s era greats, Hum. Their most recent release, The Ascent, came out in 2019 and is a sprawling body of work containing 31 songs and clocking in at almost two hours in length.
After their set I couldn’t help but gear nerd a little bit and asked guitarist/vocalist Monika Khot about her guitar, a DiPinto Galaxie, which I had previously never seen used in the context of heavy music, only in surf and much lighter punk rock bands. I asked if she had modified it to add Humbuckers to thicken up the sound, as DiPinto’s are almost always single coil models, but she said the she got the guitar “on eBay when I was 15,” and the only modification she had made was to paint it black.
Algiers at Saint Vitus
Algiers took the stage and very quickly hit their stride, not holding anything back. Singer Franklin James Fisher was in and out of the crowd more than once, while bassist Ryan Mahan shed his instrument multiple times to dance and channel the music through his body as though it was an instrument itself.
I had previously seen them in 2018 when they were on a run with Downtown Boys (I covered that show for Impose), and was completely blown away; I had not been able to get that show out of my head since that night and was thrilled to be seeing them again. As mentioned, their politics are at the forefront of the lyrics and this is punctuated and enhanced with voiceovers and the emotion that radiates off of Fisher. While I expected the set mostly to be made up of the material from the newest album, they mixed it up and played songs from across their catalog, pulling heavily from 2017’s, The Underside of Power.
Their set moved along in sonic crests and waves, at times more muted like the somber and soulful piano based “Hymn for an Average Man,” and pivoting to blistering at others with the driving electro infused guitar blast of “Cry of the Martyrs,” featuring Fisher’s vocals soaring to incredible heights. They paired this back to back with the equally rapid fire electro beat of “Walk Like A Panther.” The audience moved with the band throughout all of these tonal shifts, reacting emotionally throughout the set and engaging fully with the band no matter the mood.
Drummer Matt Tong is currently on paternity leave from the band, but they were joined onstage by fill in drummer Dante Foley of Mourning [A] BLKstar who meshed perfectly with the rest of the group.
As I said in that earlier review from the first time I saw them, Algiers had “left the air crackling with intensity in their wake.” That sentiment rang even more true on this night, as it is obvious every part of their performance is intentional and necessary in the totality of their presence. They very much lived up to this ethos of intention, closing their set with “Death March,” from The Underside of Power. Extending the song, they left a looped outro playing as they all exited the stage and walked out of the room, making their final statement of the evening.
Scroll down to see pics of the show (photos by Kate Hoos)
ZEN MOTHER
ALGIERS
