- Piper Ferguson
- White Lung
Before the nostalgia bomb of this weekend’s Riot Fest goes off, there’s still a few musical activities happening around town during the first half of the week. Tonight, Reggie’s celebrates its seven-year anniversary with a show headlined by huge metal acts KEN Mode and the Atlas Moth. Tomorrow night, local production team The-Drum gets things spacey and bassy at the Hideout. And on Wednesday, noise-rap group Clipping. play at Schubas while Growlers, Garden, and the Lemons are at Lincoln Hall.
There are a few more hot show picks below.
Books member Nick Zammuto brings the latest incarnation of the four-piece band named after himself to Schubas. Peter Margasak writes, ” he updates old-time murder ballads in ‘Henry Lee,’ about a man who kills his true love, and evokes a nagging sense of guilt about an unspoken misdeed in a track that he’s for some obscure reason titled ‘Hegemony,’ whose instrumental component is a fizzy rush of Dirty Projectors-style complexity. He builds his arrangements around rhythm; the pretty but forgettable melodies, sung by Zammuto himself or by guest vocalist Daniela Gesundheit of Snowblink, drift through a hazy constellation of synthesizer lines and terse guitar patterns. The live-band aspect ought to enhance this group’s onstage impact, but its material feels a bit slight compared to the Books’ richly textured aural puzzles.”
Tue 9/9: Florida Georgia Line at Aragon Ballroom
“Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard claim to get a fair amount of guff in Nashville circles for adding hints of hip-hop and arena rock to Florida Georgia Line’s brand of country, but the occasional rapped verse or Mutt Lange-worthy beat only makes their band sound more like, well, America,” says Maura Johnston. “‘Cruise,’ their top-five come-on to a lady who’s as perfect as a song, is a well-mixed oleo of the hyperproduced twang-pop of Rascal Flatts and the more laid-back work of guest star Nelly (‘Ride Wit Me,’ ‘Where the Party At’), topped off with cred-boosting references to trucks and Marshall Tucker. Even on ‘Party People’ (from their debut full-length, 2012’s Here’s to the Good Times), where they give props to David Lee Roth and ‘country in the rap beat,’ they cloak their boom-bap in fingerpicking and southern accents.”
Wed 9/10: White Lung at Subterranean
Canadian melodic hardcore outfit White Lung plays the Sub-T this week. Kevin Warwick says, “Of White Lung’s three albums, this year’s Deep Fantasy is the best produced—thanks, Domino Recording Company!—and most ferocious. It’s the sound of a hardcore punk band very much in command of its hardcore punkness. Each of its dark two-minute mantras is carved into an unblemished diamond—no pomp and no frills, just misanthropy, full steam ahead. Front woman Mish Way seethes with vitriol one moment (‘Drown With the Monster’) and belts out a grunge-tipped yowl the next (‘Down It Goes’), while guitarist Kenneth William blows through breakneck riffs, hopscotching from one chord to the next and banging noise out of his guitar that’s nearly melodic.”