By: Pat O'Brien
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STNNNG - photo from myspace.com/stnnng
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You don’t often see shows this early in the day. As I looked around the near full 7th Street Entry at the bleary-eyed masses and got in line to heap some much needed grub onto my plate, this much was clear: most everyone was in various stages of being hungover and pretending not to be—in any way, shape or form. It was noon. Yes, you read that right: noon. And what would posses anyone to enter the semi-filthy confines of the Entry this early in the day, you ask? Lunch, of course. Pulled pork sandwiches, meat and cheese trays, pigs in a blanket and a cake that had been custom made in the image First Avenue (complete with candy stars.) It was a feast worthy of Caligula himself. Oh, and there were bands playing, too.
With a burst of grating, fuzzy feedback and a bit of pilfered audio from a late-night B-movie declaring, “There is no shadow government!” FT (The Shadow Government), who were celebrating the release of their CD burst into the opening minutes of their set like a wolf on mescaline. The throbbing bass and sharp, clear guitar recalled Tool in a way, but it was brighter, without much of the bleakness and willful obtuseness present so often in that band. There were bursts of ambient noise throughout the 30-plus-minute set and at times they resembled System Of A Down. Just like their name suggests (and furthering the passing resemblance to SOAD) they have a clear disdain
for the people in power and they want you to think for yourself. STNNNG’s Chris Besinger joined them for a couple of songs (he would repeat this favor for Signal to Trust, as well) and as their set came to a close I decided that this thing wasn’t as “wacky” as I had thought. The Lunch Show wasn’t a gimmick, every show should be like this.
With the buffet line now thoroughly trashed and mere crumbs left to eat, Signal To Trust roared in with a set of songs that were fully entrancing. It was like War-era U2 meets Dischord Records. The lyrics were delivered in a stream of consciousness poetry-slam like manner. The guitars swirled and soared for many of the songs, but just as many imploded upon themselves at their close as well. “The Herald,” with it’s guitar riff that folded in on itself over and over before singer/guitarist Brian Severns choked it to death at the end, was the definitely a highlight, but luckily not just the highlight. These guys somehow fly way under the radar here, which is a mystery, they definitely deserve more attention than they have been getting.
Two songs into STNNNG’s raging, cathartic set and lead singer Chris Besinger was already hanging from the rafters, using them as playground monkey bars and, as usual, looking dangerously close to crawling into the crowd and throwing haymakers for no other reason than just to do so. I’ve seen these guys a few times and I still can’t tell if this is his stage persona or if he’s really this dangerous, but he surely fits into STNNNG’s scheme of things perfectly. “We want to watch animals fight!” he declared at the end of one song. The songs, like Besinger, are uncompromising and have an axe to grind. They’re surly and roiling, visiting places best left alone. Places you don’t visit, but rather, along the lines of places you end up. Besinger howls and barks into the microphone like a madman while J. Michael Ward’s drums thunder in the background and Jesse Kwakenat’s bass churns up feelings inside that are hard to face. Adam Burt’s slowed-down buzz saw of a guitar piles on the general feeling of malaise and one thing becomes apparent: we were fed lunch for a reason, people can’t handle this kind of abuse on an empty stomach. This is a dangerous band full of dangerous ideas set to do dangerous things. Don’t make any sudden moves or loud noises and never surprise them, doing so may result in injury or death.
Location Info:
7th Street Entry
Artist Info: FT (The Shadow Government), STNNNG, Signal to Trust
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