- DAVE SUMMERS
- Courtesy of Pet Symmetry’s Facebook page
By now you’ve probably read that Riot Fest announced another wave of bands slated to play its three-day punk blowout in Humboldt Park, most notably the Pixies and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. (Unfortunately Motorhead and Bad Brains dropped off the bill due to “unforeseen circumstances.” Ohio crabcore outfit Attack Attack! also cancelled on Riot Fest, but that’s a relief.) There’s obviously a lot of hubbub around the newest bands at the top of the bill even though, say, the Pixies will be performing without Kim Deal (she left the group last month), so it’s fairly easy to ignore the smaller bands, but I’m pretty excited about one group listed at the very bottom of the lineup—local emo three-piece Pet Symmetry.
The band is fairly new and only has a couple seven-inches under its belt, but the outfit has a strong, um, pedigree. Front man Evan Thomas Weiss is the main man behind Into It. Over It., which has grown from its humble beginnings as a solo songwriting project Weiss started in 2007 to become one of the premier acts in the national underground emo scene, and his bandmates Erik Czaja and Marcus Nuccio play in Dowsing, which is one of the bigger groups in the local emo scene. Pet Symmetry makes some tight, uplifting emo tracks that veer toward power-pop; take a listen to the group’s recent two-song seven-inch for Asian Man Records and “Boldy Going Nowhere,” which Weiss released as a split with Florida’s Dikembe on his Storm Chasers label.