Consequence of Sound Day Party
Beauty Bar, Wednesday, March 14Ben Greenberg’s addition to the Men may be what pushes the New York City foursome off the Detroit Motor City reservation. Thumping out a distorted rumble that would make White Denim’s Steve Terebecki stand up and shout, Greenberg gave guitarists Mark Perro and Nick Chiericozzi space to go nuts on the never-ending attack and release of new album Open Your Heart. Fellow New York shit-kickers Mr. Dream rummaged through last year’s Trash Hit to find a wild mess of heathen chemistry powered by the shrill, irregular guitar lines of Alex Moerder. Miraculously, Nick Sylvester didn’t pop his snare drum. Strapped with the perma-vibrato howl of Marissa Paternoster, New Brunswick, N.J., trio Screaming Females earned its name in the first 15 seconds. “What a way to toe the line between pain and pleasure,” noted Titus Andronicus singer Patrick Stickles before his Glen Rock, N.J., quartet’s loose, fist-pump-inducing set. The same could be said of San Francisco’s Mikal Cronin, who’ll remind many of a Radish-era Ben Kweller with his psychedelic hue and distorted 12-string acoustic guitar. Cleveland, Ohio, headliners Cloud Nothings proved the most tightly packaged of the bunch, tearing up much of this year’s Attack in Memory like they’d run that material for years.
This article appears in March 16 • 2012.