NXNE 2013 Pt. I

K.
First off, I'm fucking around with the site a bit. Sorry. I'll get it figured out when I get more time.
Second, times and dates for sets I saw are kind of iffy. Whatever.

Alright.
Here goes.

Meanwood @ The Dakota

Not technically a NXNE set (it was Tuesday) but part of Meanwood's month long residency at The Dakota. But I heard that at the 1st Tuesday their second set was all country covers of punk songs and I got all Clay Davis like "Sheeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiittttt."
Meanwood are great. If you like the brand of country they play at The Dakota then you'll like Meanwood. Victoria (the singer) has got one of those sing-the-phonebook voices. She can sing. Really sing. You can't. Trust me. All their guitarists are shit-hot and the drummer is their rock. He is their island.
The place was rammy-jammy too which never hurts, and I ran into my buddy J from The Ooh Baby Gimme Mores (best. video. ever.) and MT from RR. Epic hangsies or some shit.

CROSSS @ The Boat

Really good. Super heavy, sludgy, and monolithically slow. All like reverb'ed out vocals. Great. I should mention that I made the comment later to J that if one were not the kind of person who stayed abreast of contemporary music then listening to a band like CROSSS might make one go "OK, fuck you, modern music." Lucky for me. Also, any online recordings I can find tend to leave you a little unprepared for how heavy they actually are. Their recorded output tends to reveal much more of their psyche leanings. If you see them live, bring earplugs. They're pretty loud.
Would've liked to see some more something from the singer, but hey, whatever. The drummer and bassist were really animated and into it. I think the future looks pretty good for these guys.
Also, The Boat had much better sound than I remember.
If you like heavy (I do) and kind of weird (yep) then check them out. If not, you should probably stop reading here.

Destruction Unit & Milk Music @ The Garrison

OK first we're going to talk about Milk Music in a roundabout way before we talk about DU.

Milk Music are good. I like their LP Cruise Your Illusion a LOT. It's nice and loud, but melodic, and reminds me a lot of Dino Jr., which I'm sure they are SICK TO DEATH of hearing. They were loud, but had a good mix. In fact, all in all, they are a good band and you should buy their records and see them live when they come to your town.
In fact the only problem I had with MM's set was that they went on after Destruction Unit who were OH MY GOD THEY'RE SO FUCKING GOOD HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK.
It can't be easy to follow a band who goes up and absolutely annihilates the stage, the audience, the soundboard, the urinals, the floor, the sidewalk outside, and the surrounding 3 city blocks. I felt bad for MM especially because I think their tour is kind of criss-crossing with DU and they've played as support for each other occasionally. It must really suck to go on after a band who has just destroyed (get it?) any chance you might have had of being the best band of the night. I think I'll still try and catch MM the next time they're here and see them on a night when they get a longer set and don't have to follow DU.

Destruction Unit were...just...ahhhhhhhhhhh fffffffaaaaaaacccckkkkk...

K so first off they were loud. Really loud. Probably the loudest band I've seen in a while. Super loud. Every-guitarist-had-2-amps loud. Bring earplugs. The vocals were (natch) a little buried in the mix.

Secondly because of how loud they were every song began and ended with a wall of feedback and therefore no banter or break for applause. Rarely have I seen a band turn that into a total selling point.

Thirdly the music itself was just punishingly heavy and sooooooo fucking awesome that I was like "AHHHHH WHERE'S THE MERCH TABLE" only to find that the extent of their merch was the tour poster. Bummer. Oh well. (Note: they have a lot of records out, which I didn't know at the time. You should go buy them all.)

Fourth(ly?) one of their guitarists has got huge mega fucking Sideshow Bob hair and this totally weird floppy/bouncy side to side head banging style which took me a song or two but then I got totally into it and was like "OK, I get it, I see what you're doing, I'm feeling it".

Fifthly (fuck it I'm going with it) they ended their banter-free set by dropping their guitars (MOAR FEEDBACK) and the singer (having just climbed back down from on top of the piano/lighting rig) unplugged his guitar, stuck the patch cord in his mouth, and began talking through his amps. I was unaware you could do this. It was very, VERY cool. Fuck. So rad.

They were probably the best band I saw this year, and one of the better bands I've ever seen. They were so keyed in to each other, and weird but good, with great physical chemistry. Very un-self conscious, very tight, very loose, very loud. In fact I think I caught the guitarist from MM at the merch (note spellcheck wants to write "mercy" lolz) table watching DU's set and then I understood why he had looked so bummed out all evening. The sads.

Whew. Roll on Friday.

[Edit] I forgot we saw Nicholas Doubleyou and The B Squad at the Silver Dollar. Next post.