Last night at DBA, it was a bit of a weird combination of sounds with Slutever from Philadelphia starting off their “Slutever Do America” tour, Mannequin Pussy along for the ride, SoftSpot from Brooklyn and one of the better, weirder bands to come out of the “Bushwick” “Punk” “scene”, Teardrops.
Teardrops opened the night playing to an audience which consisted of members of The Men and Marsh Hens interspersed amongst the fan base for the other acts.
The music was a mixture of stuff found on the demo and new material. Songs like “Fortune Teller” and “Sharpshooter” sound damn good live and it made me kind of which we’d heard “Ramblin” partially because it’s a fun sing-along-song and partially because its sloppy “who cares” nature would have been a good start to the night.
Teardrops has gotten better than the last time I saw them and I can’t wait for the new material to make it out (hopefully in a better audio format than tape). They play again Friday at Cakeshop with Mickey.
SoftSpot is aptly named, moving through life, whose sound you only capture through brief snippets as lead singer Sarah Kinlaw’s voice recalls the wispy haunted melodies of early Trip Hop yet with the strength and tremolo of a student of classical singing techniques. When the first piece of equipment the band set up was a dreamcatcher and the second a set of wind chimes warning signs fired off but thankfully the music has a deceptive strength and the wind chimes are touched twice.
Mannequin Pussy is a two-piece boy/girl drum/guitar combo doing short, sharp jangle songs with lots of yelling. They did a very short set which had song titles like “Meatslave2″, “Empire of Blood” and uh “Pissdrinker” (need to do a collab with Golden Tears). It was good for what it was, but it wasn’t innovative in any real way.
Slutever is a girl / girl guitar / drum combo from Philly. They switch it up a bit depending on the songs, but unfortunately, it was late and I had work the next morning, so I couldn’t stay for more than a handful of songs.