Thira - Dirty Dog Bar, SXSW, Austin TX - March 19, 2015

[Minneapolis] I was irresistibly drawn off the sidewalk by this band’s overwhelmingly terrible noise - simplistic sp

eed metal with screamo vocals and regular sonic crashes (as demonstrated by the well-timed head thrashes). The steam punk outfits were an odd choice for their crowd – as was the white dust billowing from their clothes – apparently the residue from their apocalyptic lives. They worked really hard to project a super macho image so I spent my time picking apart how they were totally not super macho. For instance, the lead singer regularly sipped from his water bottle to keep screamo-ing. Plus it’s really difficult to maintain macho cred when you tell the audience you’re from Minneapolis. The one guy on guitar was such a little rosy-cheeked angel, he could hardly contain his smiles and blushes. They put him up on a box to macho him up. Don’t even get me started on their extensively choreagraphed performance – simultaneous head thrashes, leg kicks, etc. So I wondered two things – 1) do black guys get criticized more heavily for this kind of posturing more than white guys? 2) is it really the most needy sensitive guys who gravitate towards this music?