Sound on Sound crammed a whole lot of emotion into Empire Control Room’s outdoor space Friday night, stacking a six-band bill mostly catering to an emo revival utopia.
The full house bubbled with next-level fanatics, overcome with total glee while punching the air and screaming along about wanting to die, mental illness, borderline stalker behavior, etc. The experience somehow skirted between cathartic, depressing, eye-roll-inducing, and deliriously fun. Austin/Brooklyn fourpiece Alex Napping proved the most understated set of the night, their dreamy, wispy, start-and-stop arrangements both playful and cerebral.
Connecticut’s Sorority Noise reeled between a guttural hollering and quiet vulnerability, slipping in a cover of Julien Baker’s funereal “Good News” into “Blonde Hair, Black Lungs.” Massachusetts-based the Hotelier relied on cleansing crescendos, crashing guitars, and utter likability in their stage banter. Bassist/vocalist Christian Holden employed the genre’s nasally affectation, which occasionally devolved into shouting. An immersive, meditative musical arrangement of “Sun” offered a peak moment.
Headliners Citizen operated on an entirely different level. Instrumentally, they’re akin to the harsh, booming grunge of the Nineties, disheveled and gritty. Hailing from Toledo, Ohio, the fivepiece’s Rust Belt imagery bleeds into the gray desperation of its sound.
When the group took the stage, they called the prior evening in Dallas their worst show and said they wanted to bounce back. Opening with new single “Jet,” the band wove from just-released third LP As You Please into beloved material from 2013 debut Youth, including “Roam the Room” and “The Night I Drove Alone.” “In the Middle of It All” tracked a brooding bassline that reverberated over a backing track.
New set-list addition “Ugly Luck” spotlighted singer Mat Kerekes. The frontman took turns between hollering into the mic and holding the stand out to an audience screaming along. Dallas redemption accomplished.
This article appears in November 10 • 2017.