Charm City

Science Penguin is an aquatic flightless bird from the order Sphenisciformes at Silhouette Lounge on Monday, 10 July 2023.

Locals Between Skies and Four open, while Modern Fuzz completes the two Maryland band capper.

What’s up with Baltimore?

Charm City, Clipper City, The Monumental City, The City That Reads, The Greatest City in America, Mobtown, Bodymore, Smalltimore, the Realest City in America?

It’s one of those cities that out-capitals the capital of its state Maryland. “But I hear wonderful things about Annapolis.” Sure you do. No one is saying anything against Annapolis, home to Bumpin Uglies.

But if we’re in the Music pages talking music, there’s a lot to be said about great musicians from Baltimore.

Billie Holiday, Tori Amos, Philip Glass, Sisqó?

Frank Zappa, Dan Deacon, Beach House, Sisqó?

Rye Rye, Misery Index, Animal Collective, Sisqó?

Horse Lords, Lower Dens, Matmos, Sisqó?

Add Modern Fuzz…

The list goes on and on, all night long, like that thong th-thong, thong, thong.

Now what about Germantown?

Between Skies

Local scions of metal Between Skies opened up a night full of rapidfire fretwork.

The Malden-based five-piece just released a new single called “Emotions of Apathy.” No doubt the uptempo track made it onto the setlist in the backroom at the Silhouette Lounge.

Extra points for the drummer’s forehead-mounted GoPro capturing the action.

Four

Not Weatherless?

Hump Day News covered Weatherless not so long ago in the very same backroom of the Silhouette Lounge. And that band didn’t look like this band. Or is this just a “dark as hell in the backroom of the Sil” issue?

The plot thickens. [OK, checked with booker, this was Four! Last minute lineup swap.]

Modern Fuzz

Power fusion proggers from The City That Reads! It’s Modern Fuzz.

If you only heard this band for thirty seconds at a time, you’d walk away with radically different impressions based on where the thirty seconds landed. Metal. Rock/jazz fusion. Mathy. Hardcore. Groove. The three-piece flashed the hard-driving musical chops to kick out a serious variety of sounds. And they want to sound like them all in any given song.

We’ve got different flavors of rock fusion in Boston. Crystal Lizard, Lane, and Clamb are great. But none of those bands scale the metal mountain with urgency (or at all) like Modern Fuzz does.

Fuzz does. Say that aloud – it’s fun.

Science Penguin

Speaking of urgency, Science Penguin boils down the thrash rock fusion formula even further to two players, one on guitar and one on drums.

How do two-pieces grab and hold your attention?

With efficient songwriting where each player wears a lot of hats. There’s no luxury fifth guitarist who’s just on board for that one solo in that one song. A two-piece is all-hands-on-deck all the time. Shades of Zappa meets math rock meets Hellbender meets Death Grips.

[Oh wait, Science Penguin is usually a three-piece?]