Girls Against Boys at Sound on Sound arrived as the kind of booking its literal and spiritual predecessor Fun Fun Fun Fest was predicated on: a reunion or rare performance by a beloved Eighties/Nineties alternative rock cult that makes both twentysomethings and fortysomethings realize how much they’ve missed.
Plying its distinctive lineup of two basses, guitar, drums, and an outlook of grimy decadence, GVB – based in New York but constructed from parts of various Washington, D.C. hardcore acts – cuts as distinctive a figure in 2016 as it did 20 years ago on its 1996 masterpiece House of GvsB.
Four-stringers Eli Janney and Johnny Temple lay down a bottom as thick as crystallized syrup, keeping the rhythms dance worthy with the aid of busy drummer Alexis Fleisig. Scott McCloud overlays the hip-shaking rumble with fuzz-choked chords somewhere between Northwestern grunge and New Yawk noise. The guitarist intones his deliberately repetitive lyrics as if letting you know he sees through every pretension you might have toward respectability.
Whether indulging in the dancefloor boogie of “TheKindaMzkYouLike” or the punk-infused hard rock of “Cruise Your New Baby Fly Self,” the band kept it tight like handcuffs on a perp. Though three years have passed since the group’s Ghost List EP – and well over a decade since an album before that – you’d never know the band works so rarely. The crowd, though modest, showed its appreciation loudly after every song, giving the band back as much as it gave.
By the time “Disco Six Six Six” and “Super-Fire” brought down the house, GVB had made the years between now and its heyday insignificant.
This article appears in November 4 • 2016.
