Cruising through two decades worth of College Rock 101 in an open topped convertible, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes began the night at Red 7 Saturday. A guitar/drummer two-piece, the band exhausted their audience with riffs galore influenced by every Pacific Northwest guitar hero circa 1994. Singer/vocalist Steve Pike, channeling his best Cobain, howled through their opening track, begging the crowd “How do you see me?” Drum fills flailing and guitars blazing through low-end spectral outbursts, their set was a proper portrait of how the youth see the past: pissed, rowdy, and drunk.
Untouch found themselves on the bill only days previous, and brought their own brand of nostalgic grunge to the table. A mix of mumbled vocals and post-hardcore guitars defined their rushed 40-minute set. Guitar interplay reminiscent of the early 2000’s Tooth & Nail roster kept pace with the equally chugging rhythm section, while the leather and denim clad crowd swayed appropriately.
Taking their time approaching the stage, the Whirr boys hung back in the shadows while a single strand of Christmas lights lit the darkened stage. The room filled quickly and the stage was lined left to right with people on their elbows, already looking upward towards the single microphone at center stage. At exactly midnight (all 5 members with hair hiding their eyes) slumped across the stage. A brief moment of silence and tuning prefaced while the air around the room seemed to be pulled tight into lungs. Without even a 4 count, the band lurched into a full-throttle assault. The three-guitar attack, combined with the punching strength of the bass and drums, pushed their mid-tempo wake-and-bake aesthetic to heavenly heights. Hushed vocals were buried beneath Nick Bassett and company’s mammoth atmospheric delivery.
Chests tightened by the volume, the crowd seemed hypnotized in their synchronized swaying, eyes closed, heads down, with the band in similar positions. No silence was left between songs, mumbling bits of feedback and delay crawled through every quiet space until the band resumed their wash of attitude and ambience. Punk rock in ethos, but flexing with shoegaze, know-it-all prowess, album highlights “Mumble” and “Heavy” were both delivered with antagonistic speed, while songs from their 2012 debut Pipe Dreams were treated with a hazier delinquency. Whirr challenged every band that they reference with pure indifference. They’re here as themselves, and they could care less if you think they sound like My Bloody Valentine.
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