We’re only one night into Noise Pop, and I spent the day giddy. After getting last night’s post up, I headed to the Bottom of the Hill to catch Liily and FIDLAR. I detailed my discovery of Liily here a few weeks ago. I’m not sure how the stars aligned just so, but I’m so glad they did. The show was great. But Lilly’s set was beyond expectations.
I placed myself to the side of the stage because the drums were set up perpendicular to the front, thanks to the compressed space and short change-over times between bands. This meant I would have an unobstructed profile view of three of the four members, but a heads-on view of the drummer. Which is exactly what I wanted.
Watching their performance on New Year’s Eve, I remember being struck by how fast, but how steady, the timekeeper was. Maxx Morando brought that same controlled chaos last night, too. Equal parts Animal and Steve Gadd, he made you want to dance all night. On the backs of your vanquished.
Singer Dylan Nash’s posture reminded me of the imposing stage stoicism of Liam Gallagher, only if Gallagher loved what he was doing as if his very survival depended on the energy he put into every song. Nash barked and sang and chanted lyrics I'm still trying to learn, but convinced me that whatever he was saying was so urgent, that I was compelled to watch his every move.
But how could I keep watching Nash with bassist Charlie Anastasi creating a whirlwind of low-end growl just to his left. There was so much to love. A blur of limbs and hair. A fierce, punctuating back-up vocal. The rumbly foundation which could have easily been mistaken for plate tectonics. He reminded me of Jason Newstead’s early days.
But the main distraction from Nash’s frontman magnetism was guitarist Sam De La Torre. I know I’m biased as a fellow guitar player, but his playing was mesmerizing. It’s cliche to say some people play guitar like a percussion instrument, so I’ll try to stay away from that. But De La Torre attacked his instrument, specifically its strings, with a passion usually shown only to someone who needed to be taught a lesson. He combined this string spitefulness with a pedal board ballet that opened up so many new ways to make a guitar speak. It gave me gear envy to see all those stomp boxes in action, creating sound after sound that was a welcome reawakening of what six strings can do.
In short, their performance was worth the entire price of the Noise Pop pass for me. I was glowing still this morning as I summed up Liily’s live set to my wife, saying, “If cocaine was addicted to a drug, that drug would probably be Liily.”
Limo Wreck
21 February 2023
We’re only one night into Noise Pop, and I spent the day giddy. After getting last night’s post up, I headed to the Bottom of the Hill to catch Liily and FIDLAR. I detailed my discovery of Liily here a few weeks ago. I’m not sure how the stars aligned just so, but I’m so glad they did. The show was great. But Lilly’s set was beyond expectations.
I placed myself to the side of the stage because the drums were set up perpendicular to the front, thanks to the compressed space and short change-over times between bands. This meant I would have an unobstructed profile view of three of the four members, but a heads-on view of the drummer. Which is exactly what I wanted.
Watching their performance on New Year’s Eve, I remember being struck by how fast, but how steady, the timekeeper was. Maxx Morando brought that same controlled chaos last night, too. Equal parts Animal and Steve Gadd, he made you want to dance all night. On the backs of your vanquished.
Singer Dylan Nash’s posture reminded me of the imposing stage stoicism of Liam Gallagher, only if Gallagher loved what he was doing as if his very survival depended on the energy he put into every song. Nash barked and sang and chanted lyrics I'm still trying to learn, but convinced me that whatever he was saying was so urgent, that I was compelled to watch his every move.
But how could I keep watching Nash with bassist Charlie Anastasi creating a whirlwind of low-end growl just to his left. There was so much to love. A blur of limbs and hair. A fierce, punctuating back-up vocal. The rumbly foundation which could have easily been mistaken for plate tectonics. He reminded me of Jason Newstead’s early days.
But the main distraction from Nash’s frontman magnetism was guitarist Sam De La Torre. I know I’m biased as a fellow guitar player, but his playing was mesmerizing. It’s cliche to say some people play guitar like a percussion instrument, so I’ll try to stay away from that. But De La Torre attacked his instrument, specifically its strings, with a passion usually shown only to someone who needed to be taught a lesson. He combined this string spitefulness with a pedal board ballet that opened up so many new ways to make a guitar speak. It gave me gear envy to see all those stomp boxes in action, creating sound after sound that was a welcome reawakening of what six strings can do.
In short, their performance was worth the entire price of the Noise Pop pass for me. I was glowing still this morning as I summed up Liily’s live set to my wife, saying, “If cocaine was addicted to a drug, that drug would probably be Liily.”
See you tomorrow?