| « ShowYouSuck Goes Low-Res VHS for New Video | Arc Iris and The Fruit Flies Dazzle at Schubas » |
Concert Thu Apr 17 2014
The Men Create a Frenzied Spectacle at Empty Bottle 04/12
The Men appeared this past Saturday to a full house at Empty Bottle without a word. Drums cacophonously clattered, filling the air with tangible bass and impending doom. Thier guitars were loud, filling the room with curated noise and an overall sense of anticipation. It was only for a moment before seamlessly launching into their first song of the night, the incredibly anxious "Lotus." Those first few moments set a clear precedent for their rest of their performance; a frenzied spectacle.
The Men are a noise punk band from Brooklyn who have been gravitating towards no frills garage rock over the last few years. They create raucous anthems for the working class driven by loud guitars and thundering drums. They are the soundtrack to a night of drinking cheap beer and whiskey with your friends at questionable dive bars. As they played songs scattered throughout their discography, I looked around around the room and took in what I saw. Lovers held hands and danced the night away to the pounding rhythm of the drums. Friends laughed as they played pool and engaged in general revelry in tandem with the guitar riffs. Eventually, I found myself in the middle of the crowd as they played "If You Leave...," a song that has room to breathe while progressively building up to a violent and wordless chorus. It was exhilarating.
After a quick break, The Men returned and and wrapped things up with an unexpectedly gnarly cover of The Stooges "I Wanna Be Your Dog." Though it turned out to be a false alarm, The Men unexpectedly found themselves being the soundspace to this year's first summer-esque night and it was everything I wanted.
Unfortunately, I couldn't arrive in time to check out the opening act, Basic Cable. This bums me out, because I tried to catch them at Hideout's SXSW Send Party that we recently talked about, but something came up. I've heard nothing but good things about them. Our friends over at Loud Loop Press named them as one of the "14 Bands to Watch in 2014" and the folks over at Notes + Bolts interviewed them not too long ago. Listening to their album I'm Good to Drive reminds me of bands of Sub Pop past while simultaneously making me excited for their future. Check out a stream of it below.
