25th September 2010

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Double Dagger/Mirrors and Wires/Math the Band at Shea Stadium BK

After a week of doing grown-up work in the real world, I figured a Double Dagger show at Shea Stadium BK would be a good way to ease back into being a useless kid for a while. Having seen them twice before, once in October of 2008 at Death By Audio for a show with Parts & Labor and like six other awesome bands I’ll tell you about some other time, and then again in May of last year at the Market Hotel with Screaming Females. It seems like every time I see them, they get better and crazier.

I think every song Math the Band did ended with a gong sound. Awesome.

Opening up last night’s show was a Providence, Rhode Island-duo, Math the Band. As soon as they kicked into their 8/16-bit grindcore cover of Andrew WK’s “It’s Time to Party,” definitely in the top three party songs by Andrew WK, I was thinking “these people rock way too hard to be an opener.” But, I suppose someone has to do it, right? And the Math the Band motto for that night was “Everybody loves the first band, and we’re it!” You didn’t really have the option of proving that statement wrong because their silly banter; tight-and-sloppy musicianship; and insane energy, both musically and in stage presence, kicked your ass from second number one. They’re like Melt Banana for people who love Megaman, and that’s a fucking brilliant idea.

There was also a guy playing keys, but I couldn’t get a good shot of him (or anyone really). Sorry that guy!

After that were Mirrors and Wires. I didn’t know anything about them going in, but by the name, I would’ve guessed they’d sound like XTC. Once I saw them setting up the Theremin, I guessed something else was up. As their set went on I discovered they sounded more and more like a surf band doing their best to disguise the fact that they’re a surf band, by covering everything in sludge, noise, and heavy metal sounds. Is “post-surf” a thing? What about a “surf-dirge?” Is that a real? Did I hear one of those last night? Yes. And it was gnarly. When I say “experimental surf-rock,” you may think Man or Astro-man?, but Mirrors and Wires takes the same foundation Dick Dale set down fifty-whatever years ago, and stretches it in a direction I’ve not heard anyone attempt with that style. This was definitely a happy surprise, and I wasn’t expecting anything like it.

After Mirrors and Wires, I was all set to get my face kicked in in the middle of a Double Dagger pit, but some other dudes took the stage instead. I’m not really sure what to call it—I think the guy with the microphone said they were called “Thanksgiving,” but he also seemed to just be reading that word off his shirt, so I dunno…—but I guess the best description would be that it was just some dorks dorking around. I’d talk shit about it, but I get the feeling that that’s what they wanted me to do. “I get it. I’m being fucked with.” was all I wrote down in my notes on this section of the show. Here’s what the Double Dagger Twitter said around the time of this set: “Fewer ‘projects,’ more bands please.” Yup.

Too rockin’ for pictures (that I take).

Now, as I mentioned earlier, Double Dagger annihilates always.  Now, in any other band with a singer as energetic, ridiculous, and engaging as Nolen Strals, it would be easy to ignore the rest of the group. Double Dagger doesn’t have that problem, because bassist Bruce Willen and drummer Denny Bowen are indisputably two of the most powerful players around. Their sound is so full that any jerk wondering if just bass and drums is enough to create urgent, huge punk sound is left with no question about the range of sonic possibilities open to a couple guys with the right attitude. Just the two of them would be a show in itself, but keep in mind that Strals is moving around the entire space, getting close to you, tying himself to a steel support-pillar, jacking off the microphone, and rubbing it around his nips. As someone not usually excited at the prospect of being rubbed up against by dozens of sweaty, smelly strangers, it still somehow seemed like a good idea at the time. By five minutes into the set, my wrist-stamp had washed away, either from my perspiration, or someone else’s; who knows? By the end of the set, I was depleted. Mission accomplished, Double Dagger.

At this point I should mention that Japanther was on the bill to follow Double Dagger. I feel like a shitty person about this, but I didn’t stay for their set; after taking in the previous three sets, getting kicked around in the pit for a half hour, and sweating away all the water I had left in me, I didn’t feel I was in a good state to evaluate their performance. It wouldn’t be fair to them or you. So I’ll have to catch them next time. But if their set was anything like the ones that came before it, it was nasty as hell.

Tagged: double daggermirrors and wiresmath the bandshea stadium BKdeath set assholesscreaming femalesparts & labormarket hoteldeath by audio