Torche/ Post Teens/ Thunderbeast/ Ether @ Propaganda, Lake Worth March 26th.
what is time? i dont think anyone really knows for sure, its most likely the physical manifestation of the cooling down of the universe. atoms sliding towards entropy and the next big bang. my cells dividing and dying. the tides washing in and out, yr teeth erupting and evacuating. time is an affront to all human senses, a constraint which i, as a rational enlightened child of the 21st century (and a chronically unemployed individual) am unable to fully grasp. i mean what the fuck does 10 PM mean, how the fuck do i determine when something like that is happening? its mass hysteria it is, the product of post-enlightenment industrial lunacy. i mean people dont still mark the turn of seasons with human sacrifice, so why the hell should i have to get places "on time"?
so i was late is what im saying, and i missed the first band ETHER. and 80% of the second. but whatever, you probably weren't even there, so cut the shit.
i had 'missed em' but i didnt feel like i was 'missing' them. id played with ETHER in miami only weeks ago. they were loud, with a neurosis vibe. i feel exceptionally qualified to talk about this band because one time in college i had tried ether ((C2H5)2O) because of a girl i met on myspace. twas a worldwind summer affair where we drank a bottle of warm Jagermeister in the empty fountain in front of the washington square arch, and groped each other in central park. really thinking back on it, her and i huddled in my dorm room huffing stinking ether off a handkerchief was a high point in what i wish i could say was the strangest relationship that ive ever had. i developed a stutter and for weeks i couldn't smell anything. had i fallen in love ? (no i had just passed out). hell, what is love anyways but a kind of chemically induced stupor? i doubt most people could even tell the difference. shit most people wouldnt know what love was if it broke into their house, sat on their chest and slowly choked while they slept (essentially that's what it feels like to be in love).
i have nothing but good things to say and fond memories about ETHER. listen to them. theyre probably out there somewhere on the electric pornography sharing device you call the internet and they won''t disappoint. unless yr a chronically disappointed individual, in which case i really could not imagine that ETHER's black sunshine could illuminate your dismal, dismal life.
lateness dictates making up for lost time. i had to start shmoozing immediately, shaking hands, bumming cigarettes and using my powers of being a total creepazoid to get inside. i wouldnt pay, nay i dare not pay. i had too much love and respect for the bands inside to sully their art with the changing of money. i was mr. plus one, everyone's best friend and confidant, the dude with no money (except to buy beer of course). i made quick with the high fives and avoided eye contact with everyone.
THUNDERBEAST was on stage, playing a buzzy dirge which oozed forth out and over across the crowd. i felt lost in the drone. Propaganda (which also plastered the walls, a recursionist wet dream) was dark, but very un-empty. it was a real show, with real jerks playing real jerk music for other jerks. something you dont see everyday (just weekends). THUNDERBEAST doesnt have a demo, not yet they told me, but itll be out soon and someone will assuredly get one to me somehow.
POST TEENS were tight, the tightest punk band ive seen in a long while. this was the last night of their tour with TORCHE and these Gainesvillans played a quick 15 minutes without dropping a thing. it was old school, primitive and starts and stops were all in synch and i was impressed. very impressed. well, as impressed as any cynic could ever expect to be. featuring members of ASSHOLE PARADE and held down on drums by TORCHE's rick smith, they prove once again that florida still cranks out some awesome bands. culturally Florida may be stillborn but hopefully the world has forgotten about limp bizkit by now, and we can start making amends for jersey shore miami before Quetzalcoatl returns and crushes us all in 2012.
TORCHE was, as usual, transcendent. the right mix of thick evilness and pop hooks. people were moving and touching, dancing even. a woman apologized for dancing on my shoes when she should have asked me to dance (not that i know how to, but itd be nice to get asked every once in a while HINT HINT IM LONELY). TORCHE's great strength is that ability to reach across genre lines and draw a diverse crowd ,punks, hip kids, hipstars, hoopsters, boopsters, fucktards and fuck rags, the ladies, the gays and the straights all moving a way highly offensive to the swine morality. without compromising heaviness TORCHE has established themselves as the doomiest pop band around, and no english language description or semantic derivation really captures its essence. i suggest using the electronic pornography sharing device to check them out, though i assume you probably already have (unless you live in a fucking barrel somewhere, in which case im impressed by your technical prowess/ability to mind read the internet). they have also just added a second guitar player, and theyve attained a great fullness now that they are once more a four piece.
things ended, a simple consequence of beginning. people began to file themselves away. a friend told she had found love in the arms of another woman and it didnt feel like being choked. i postured and talked about booking shows that i knew would never happen & shook hands with people i barely knew, but have known for years. i left and made south, to another bar. like noah i watched as people ducked two by two into the bathroom to do coke. these people were winning. i had learned to love losing.
-mcl
