[Los Angeles] I practically never know two of the bands on
the bill. And tonight I did. My homeland. Which appears to be a land of mullets.
This band’s soundcheck was thrilling … after the valium muffle of the first
band. There was a guy doing guitar and keyboards, a lead vocalist who sometimes
did guitar, and a drummer hidden behind a post from where I was standing,
unfortunate because she had a killer mullet and a cute little white top over
her little breasts. Sometimes they were verbatim Killing Joke – how often do I
get to say that? Sometimes they were The Screamers, who were under-claimed, and
are not really palatable, but inspired the most important band
post-turn-of-the-century: Lost Sounds (in case you’ve forgotten). Sometimes
they were Christian Death, pretty much the sexiest band to ever grace our human
ears. I am filled up even being able to say the names of these bands in
reference to a band I just saw. The dance drive was intense. The vocals were
spot-on for the genre—nihilistic. Despite the glory of it all … … I kept
getting distracted by this girl breathing excessively hard on my shoulder. I
guess we were all excited in our own ways. With a trench coat over 80s-nerd
poofy skinny pants, the lead singer struck me as a character out of a Bret
Easton Ellis book: depraved upper crust. Once he was good and hot, he pulled
the trench coat off to reveal a pretty average t-shirt (with sort of that Joy
Division album design I feel like I see everywhere nowadays)—he kept trying to
roll up the sleeves, Saved by the Bell style, but they kept coming down. His
hair was good and he was a showman, from start to finish – appreciated after
the we’re-only-slightly-alive vibe of the first band. I think the
guitarist/keyboardist was actually this band’s core though—he was working
really hard, or so it looked under the incessant twitch-lighting. Their sound
was so familiar—industrial bands I loved in the 90s—and I was thinking how I
never saw those bands and how it was sort of surprising that those amazing
sounds are made with regular old instruments… and electronic equipment I don’t
get. I liked all of their songs but the ones with that layer of dirty synth
that I just don’t understand were particularly juicy—I Will make
BrightShardsOfGlass figure out the source for me. They spent the entire set
ferociously engaged in robotic dancing slash head slamming – it didn’t seem put
on and was infectious. They loved their music as much as I did. At one point
the main guy threw his guitar in glorious rock style… safely onto an amp. There
was too much bass (we were approaching a DJ Bam Bam situation and nobody wants
that) but this was the beginning of the venue’s bad sound – they didn’t seem to
be able to handle bands this loud. Sextile sort of lacked finesse (or so I
thought) but after seeing the headliner, I sort of liked them better. And I
realized just now I saw them last year… this is why I have to write things
down.
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