Cherry Chapstick + Arman At The Bazaar + Doldrums + Zorch @ O Patro Vys

Fresh noise rock band Zorch from Austin, Texas opened first at O Patro Vys. With panning projections, Zac and Shmu played out elongated versions of songs from their debut EP. Shmu, the drummer and vocalist, played wickedly to his band mate Zac, who could sometimes be seen simultaneously playing on three synthesizers... don't ask me how. Together, they delivered syncopated rhythms, distorted echoes and soaring arpeggios that basically made my jaw hit the floor. They played to please and I was hooked. Really, they were a treat to hear, and the guys are sweet and sincere... I had to buy a t-shirt.

Under his Doldrums moniker, Airik Woodhead has become quite adept at building dramatic sound collages out of almost anything he can get his hands on. As he was twisting knobs, cuing samples and singing, Woodhead was also conducting guest Schmu on the drums and it was a f-l-y improvised consummation. After their first successful collaboration, Airik confessed from the stage that "...we just started playing together and it's love. It's kind of cute." Couldn't be more dead on, Doldrums.

Afterwards, the stage shifted from a plethora of noisey absurdity that would make your mother cry to a more minimal, chill pop vibe. Arman At The Bazaar won the award for the biggest crowd of the night. Using a loop and effects pedal to construct quirky songs about fake love, he made all the cute indie girls and their boyfriends cut loose. I'd heard about this guy before, and I usually go ape over one-man bands, although I maybe got a little deterred when I started hearing his dubstep rendition of "I's the B'y"; everyone else really seemed to like his tribute to the Newfies. He said it was a new song, so maybe he has some fine tweaking to do. Or maybe I'm just falling out of touch with what is genteel.

The crowd dissipated to half its size when Cherry Chapstick stepped on stage. With three front men taking turns to sing each song, I felt as though I was listening to three different bands. Maybe their intentions on switching up vocalists was to make their sound multidimensional, which is not an easy feat or the wisest choice for some bands, or maybe their lips were too dry to have just one of them sing all the songs. That being said, they played well and the crowd was diggin' the feel. Hopefully CC keeps up with their music long enough for it to become a bit more of a mature, uniform sound. Shoegazy glam rock just might not be in right now, maybe someday it will make a comeback. Like I said before, I might just be out of touch with what kids these days are listening to.

-Michael Cota