Vice Saves Texas
Longbranch Inn/Victory Grill, Friday, March 14Every year, those self-hating hipsters over at Vice magazine co-opt 11th Street to host Vice Saves Texas, and this year the theme was loud. Seattle’s Cops exceeded the decibel limit with their bottom-heavy panic-rock, while San Diego’s Muslims was a standout surprise – four clean-cut, button-up young men whose sound meets somewhere between the Kinks and the Modern Lovers. Tel Aviv power trio Monotonix was a little hairier. Mustachioed singer Ami Shalev ran around like an excited rabbit, had approximately 17 beers poured on him, grabbed a trash can full of God knows what and poured it on the drummer, who never once stopped pounding, and then climbed on stage to lay down. After that spectacle, it was hard to believe Miami’s Torche could’ve done them one better, but holy moly. The quartet’s set started with a low rumble from their towering Orange amps, leading into fist-pumping, neck-snapping cuts from latest gem Meanderthal. Drummer Rick Smith, who hit his skins so ferociously he involuntarily stood up, was the foundation upon which guitarists Juan Montoya and Steve Brooks launched dual doom attacks that could be heard the next county over. Heads did not stop banging.
This article appears in March 14 • 2008.