Punk Sax
Dumb Waiter blow their horn at the 4th Wall on Friday, 6 September 2024.
Lurid Purple Flowers and Jiddo sandwich the triplestack bill.
Digital Awareness in the house.
The booker behind the local live music series Illegally Blind (puts together the Fuzzstival and more), Jason Trefts, is raising money to start a non-profit organization, staffed by brain tumor survivors, “that will provide free short-term care coordination services for people in the Boston, MA area recently diagnosed with a brain tumor.”
The mission of the project hits close to home for Trefts. In his own words, “I was diagnosed with an incurable Astrocytoma at 24 years old. I have spent the decade-plus since navigating chronic disabling conditions while working in the human services field.”
“Astrocytoma” is a type of brain tumor. And while Trefts has been dealing with that, he has also been working in care coordination himself, observing first hand how important the work is. His proposed non-profit would make more of that important work happen for more people. Find out the details and donate at the Still Around Gofundme.
Post hardcore shenanigans from Jiddo. The band performed as a quartet, with the vocalist trading in and out of guitar duties while singing through the whole set. Also, convulsing on the floor, jumping on the furniture, and running up and down the aisle. We call that “activating the space” in the theatre business. Solid shout out for the merch of the out-of-town band, Dumb Waiter, who did have some pretty fucking awesome t-shirt designs.
The second of three acts at the storied Capitol Theatre, second oldest film palace in Arlington. It’s Dumb Waiter! Straight outta Richmond, Virginia, seat of the Confederate presidency during the Civil War.
The four-piece band plays a mashed up style of punk, prog, and jazz. Think Clamb meets Horse Lords.
Masterful fusion drumming, taking advantage of all the jazz tricks without losing the rock attack. The saxophone jumps out at you too. A kind of punk sax (like a James Chance attitude), to be distinguished from a rock sax (like the guy from Lost Boys).
The trio is tight! They said they were playing for the first time after laying off live performance for a while, but all I heard was bang, bang, bang, each musician playing exactly on the heels of the other.
Hard rock with exemplary musicianship at each instrument: guitar, drums, and bass. A lot of vibrato on the vocals, though the lead vocalist can dial it up to doom grunt-level sing/shouting when she wants to.
Shout out to the guy from Jiddo who lent his guitar when the guitarist from Lurid Purple Flowers broke her low E string. Bonus points to the LPF guitarist for making it work.
Only three acts in the lineup, which times out pretty well, wrapping up before midnight. Some considerations have to be made in view of the cops coming out on a noise complaint at a previous gig.