23rd January 2011

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Universal Order of Armageddon, Trophy Wife, Tournament at the Cake Shop

For those of you unfamiliar with the Cake Shop, here’s my one photo from Friday night, which could be from any night:

Sorry, folks. I just didn’t feel like molesting/getting molested to get a couple pictures that would no doubt turn out shitty anyway due to my total lack of photography skills/focus. Not my thing.

So, while it’s cool in a lot of ways, that’s definitely my least favorite part of the venue. Unless you want to be aggressive in making your way to the front, or be there way early or something, you’ll end up with the view I had, or you can always watch the show on the televisions they have up above the bar for that intimate experience.

Okay, okay, the actual show.

Locals Tournament opened up the night with a blistering set of discordant hardcore jams, melded together with a bit of stoner metal that was what I was aggressive, abrasive, definitely a bit sloppy, and all in all a good time. Their first number blasted out of a “Dazed and Confused” vamp that sounded like Led Zeppelin, if they got their start in the early 80’s touring with a bunch of SST bands. My favorite moments of their set came during a song named by one of their dads, “Surf This,” which really did sound like a Man or Astro-Man? song sped up and covered in a layer of sludge; and the last piece of their set, the name of which I did not catch, but which had several gnarly breaks and fills. Well done, dudes.

The mid-card was Trophy Wife, a guitar/drums duo hailing from Philadelphia. The first thing I noticed was that the drummer was wearing a dress…

@An_Urge: Is it okay to play drums in a skirt? Seems like it would be dangerous…

She seemed to handle it with no issues, though. The pair plowed through their set with a wall of sound that soared around the room, sounding like a punk-rock Japandroids, riffy, full, stripped down, raw, rough, and angry. It also reminded me a bit of a pissed off Marnie Stern. Some of the vocal rhythms were a bit clunky, but I definitely come down on the “pro” side of the column when it comes to Trophy Wife, especially for some of their songs that had a bit of an Eastern, Tetris-y feel to them.

Closing the night was a recently reunited Universal Order of Armageddon, who you might (but probably don’t) remember from the two years they were together in the early 90’s recording a few 7-inches and a couple EP’s before breaking up for whatever reason. I was pretty excited to see them (since I was six years old when they broke up) but, though the guys themselves knocked the shit out of their set, my placement in the room didn’t lend itself to a fantastic aural experience. Throughout their set, some Indian music was left playing over the PA; it was a cool idea, the band playing over this stuff, creating a mesh of varied sounds and rhythms, but I happened to be about a foot away from one of the house speakers, so from where I was standing, it was much more of a battle than a collaborative effort. During the softer parts of their songs, they were completely drowned out by the “background” music. It was actually very cool to hear them blast through the mix during the louder moments of their set, but it wasn’t cool enough to sustain interest for the entire thing. The experience definitely varied depending on where you were in the room, which is true for almost any show, but it varied widely, and that meant it kind of sucked at times. But if you were in the right spot, it was a fuckin’ blast, and you really should check out the band if you’ve never heard of them before. To me, they’re like if Damaged-era Henry Rollins sang for Rapeman. So, they’re pretty fantastic.

Tagged: Cake ShopUniversal Order of ArmageddonTrophy WifeTournamentMan or Astro-Man?Henry RollinsDamagedRapeman