[ATTENDED: July 22, 2017] The Writhing Squares
I was unfamiliar with The Writhing Squares before this show, although apparently they have been making music for at least four years. And Thurston Moore claimed that they had the best band name he;s heard this year.
The Writhing Squares are a duo: Kevin Nickles: Saxophone, flute, voice, synthesizer, percussion and Daniel Provenzano: Bass, voice, synthesizer, percussion, drum machine. I can’t get over how many duos there have been lately and just how good two people can sound (even if they’re not just playing acoustic guitars and harmonizing).
For this set, Provenzano started each drum machine beat on some kind of gadget and then he played some really cool bass parts. He had lots of effects on his bass so the sound was pretty diverse.
But the real diversity came from Nickles. I was genuinely surprised that he played saxophone–not the first instrument you expect from a loud rumbly bass duo. The sax sounded pretty good (I had earplugs in and feel like I might have missed out on some of the higher end sounds). But it was when he switched over to flute that I thought it sounded fantastic.
They played six or seven songs. On the first three, Nickles played in order: sax; flute and vocals; sound effects. The first song was called “Streetlight Nightmare” and I really liked the bass line and the wailing sax. Nickles played flute and sang lead on track three.
For the third song, Nickles was playing around with some kind of synthesizer, making swirling and swishing sounds. I couldn’t see him all that well, but he was twisting knobs ans generating all manner of spacey sounds. All under Provenzano’s bass lines. I’m going to guess this was “Can’t Fall Off a Mountain.”
I really enjoyed when Nickles played flute–he even lifted up his foot ala Ian Anderson. You can really hear how cool it worked on “Astral Trane.” I particularly dug the flourishes at the end.
Provenzano sang on a few songs but he was mostly all business on the bass. Nickles meanwhile was drinking a 40 oz PBR and unless he multiple cans, seemed to be squeezing every last drop out of that one, ha.
For the final song, Nickles played flute and sax and keyboards (I think).
I enjoyed their set a lot, although a couple of the songs ran a little long–five to eight minutes of a repeating bass is a bit much. But they had a really big sound for just two guys and they were clearly having a good time up there.
You can hear their releases on bandcamp.
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