By: Pat O'Brien
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The Plastic Constellations - Publicity Photo
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Friday at the Triple Rock the The Plastic Constellations held a release party for their new album, "Crusades." The STNNNG, The Hawaii Show and Doomtree opened. The bands are very different sonically (and one isn't strictly a band—but more on that in a minute), but somehow everything melded together in near-perfect fashion. Ticket holders for the sold out show were kept waiting outside the club for an extra hour after the announced door time; thankfully, due to this unseasonably warm January, any annoyance caused by the wait was forgotten when the STNNNG took the stage.
Scant minutes after the doors opened, the body count began to climb (lyrically, anyway). The churning bass and roiling guitars of the STNNNG recall '90s alterna-psychos The Jesus Lizard. They seem to attack their instruments rather than play them - and I mean that as a compliment. Chris Besinger's vocals are howled rather than sung, and his lyrics reference killing his parents, killing himself, killing me, and rowing, all with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Their stage presence can be accurately described as "menacing." (One concert-goer remarked, "That guy [Besinger] needs therapy.") They were pure aggression for their entire set.
The Hawaii Show was next, a band completely surprised me. It was a 40-minute series of sketches concerning the life of a man named LudaChrist. That's right, LudaChrist. There was a dancing crucifixion of Ashlee Simpson, as well as a Milli Vanilli for lip-synching (made even more amusing by the fact that everyone on stage was obviously lip-synching as well). The Scarface soundtrack played while LudaChrist sent an e-mail, and snippets of sound effects and music ranged from lyrics rapped over the music of New Kids On The Block's "Hangin' Tough" to LudaChrist mistaking a palm tree for Wi-Fi. There was so much laughter that I missed some dialogue, but it was well-written and clever - though I'm still not sure what it all meant.
Doomtree followed, and while they were on stage I was struck by something: when I see hip-hop artists on TV, they often appear ready to fight. No smiles, no excitement. In a complete contrast, Doomtree were all over the stage, grinning and jumping and getting the crowd involved as much as possible. Dessa, slyly presented as an object of desire, tore down preconceptions and showed that she has impressive skill, which kept things interesting and smart. A lot of female hip-hop artists seem to use sex appeal to move records, and Dessa proved that she doesn't have to. Sims, a high school classmate of The Plastic Constellations, could hardly contain himself. There were no tough-guy, misogynistic antics to be found here, and it made the hip-hop sound fresh.
The Plastic Constellations are what Fugazi would be if Ian Mackaye had even an ounce of humor in him. They had a lot riding on this show, as they were recently signed to a bigger label (French Kiss Records) and are preparing to head out on a national tour. But they didn't seem a bit nervous, as they shot off intentionally bad one-liners and shotgunned PBR with their friends in the crowd. They appeared to have quite a few friends in attendance, and many were singing along to every song. They also retired an early song of theirs (“Let’s War”) - a song that, given their abilities now, must have seemed a little embarrassing to play - though it was undoubtedly a crowd favorite.
Location Info:
Triple Rock Social Club
Artist Info: Heiruspecs, STNNNG, The Hawaii Show, The Plastic Constellations
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