As detailed in this post from earlier in the week, I recently had a bunch of clothing randomly stolen. Among the shirts taken was a nifty bright green Blood on the Wall shirt which I scored at this show back in February. I really liked that fucking shirt because it seemed to clash with pretty much everything I could wear it with, so oddly enough replacing that shirt figured heavily in to my decision to go to tonight's Blood on the Wall show. Normally this would be a no-brainer, but alas just a scant ten or so blocks away from my apartment Torche was playing with The Sword at Yuppie Northsix, so tonight I had options. I haven't seen Torche live in almost exactly two years when they opened for Mogwai at Webster Hall, and their new record, Meanderthal is fucking fantastic. Dilemma, dilemma, and either show would have probably been great, but ultimately Blood on the Wall won out because it was a cheaper ticket.
Before the show, 'twas a beautiful day, so I wandered around for awhile before meeting up with Sluggo (aka Loud and Fat) at my new apartment, eventually smoking some weed and crossing the bridge into downtown Manhattan. I've been cutting back on the doobage lately and so after a couple one-hits I was pretty blazed. Eventually Sluggo departed, but not before adding to his newly minted panda project. I wandered around aimlessly for awhile, walking briefly through the Ukranian festival dealie on 7th street before heading down towards Mercury Lounge.
Sadly, Blood on the Wall didn't have any shirts similar to the one I wanted to replace so instead I snagged a blue one. I clumsily tried to make small talk with BOTW's Brad and Courtney Shanks before realizing how absurdly stoned I still was, so I fired up phone Tetris and waited for the first band to come on.
Nineish, Abigail Warchild took the stage, and I really got into their set. They have a dense sound anchored around manic guitar and an extremely foreboding organ tone, with plenty of melody elbowing its way through the thickness. The vocalist seemed to enjoy baiting the crowd slightly, which was cool, and his singing style ran the gamut from more traditional indie nasalisms to ear-piercing screams. I enjoyed these guys' set and gladly snagged a copy of their album, which they were giving away for free. Cool shit.
Up next was Lights, and goddamn it if I haven't had a tough time trying to find someone that fits as a comparison to these guys, so I'm not going to bother. They're a three-piece, with blonde chicks on guitar and drums, respectively, and splitting harmonized vocals, and with an older-looking dude sitting in a chair and pounding out some great bass melodies. They had a very chill sound, at times almost folky, and I dug 'em.
Third on the bill was Cause Co-Motion who I had first seen at the BOTW show in February at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Looking over that review, I think I pretty much nailed these guys the first time around: they're goofy, fun, fast and the drummer's bass drum-less/three-piece kit is fucking hilarious.
Finally Blood on the Wall took the stage. I'm on record as being a big fan, with their most recent album, Liferz, coming in at #4 on my Best Albums So Far in 2008 list and with that same February show being among my favorite shows in '08, as well. With these guys having a bunch of touring under their belts in support of Liferz, many of the songs have changed shape somewhat, notably with nearly everything -- even including the more mid-tempo songs -- being played incredibly fast. Again they opened with the awesome "Stoner Jam" and with a bunch of shit from Awesomer as well. When the set ended (after a tidy 35 minutes or so) the band reemerged briefly, busting into "Acid Fight" as the encore, followed by the drummer basically destroying his drumkit by belly flopping onto it. Looked painful, but also looked mad fun. After this they played another song, broken guitar string flailing in the breeze, with the drummer pounding on his still-upright snare and an audience member joining in on a jettisoned floor tom. Fun, fun, fun!
Boy, I was planning on writing more, even going so far as to compare Brad from BOTW to the (hypothetical) muppet that got kicked off of Sesame Street for refusing to bathe, but I suddenly got really tired. Sorry bout that. BOTW rule, etc. Anyway I don't have tix for anything during this upcoming week, so I'll probably wind up trying to catch some bands I've never heard of before. Mealz outward/etc.
