I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: April 15, 2019] Big Heet

I had never heard of Big Heet.  I looked them up online before the show and bandcamp said they were from Tallahassee.  But when they got up onstage, they said they were from Philly (which makes more sense for this kind of show–if you get 25 minutes, would you drive all the way from Tallahassee?).

But their location didn’t matter because I was blown away by their music.

Seriously, anyone who says to skip opening acts is a fool.  Nearly every song was two minutes or less but there was a lot of diversity of style from loud hardcore to more considered weirder punk styles.

They opened with a loud punky blast.  The bassist sang and played bass chords through most of it.  The only word I catch is “operator” which doesn’t appear on any of their lyrics on bandcamp, so it may be new.  Indeed the guitarist said they were playing new stuff, so I’m assuming it’s all new?

The guitars are a kind of controlled chaos which reminds me a lot of the way Greg Ginn plays in Black Flag and other bands.

The second song slowed the pace down with a wonderful combination of weird guitar riff and unusual accompanying bass riff. Again, it had a real later-period Black Flag feel.  This time the guitarist sang lead vocals.

In a later song the bassist and guitarist switched instruments.  The former bassist played an even cooler guitar riff (with odd effects).  The former guitarist played bass and sang.  There was some unusual bass work in the songs and lyrics abut being “strung out.”  And it rocked hard.

They put out an album in 2018 and this was the line up then.

David Settle – Guitar/Vocals
Josh Saul – Lead Guitar
Geoff Perkins – Bass
Ronnie Francisco – Drums

There were only three players on stage at this show, so I’m not sure who is in the band.  But they were awesome and not only can I not wait for their next record, but I need to find out more about these guys.

The bandcamp page includes lyrics for all of their songs as well as a brief comment about each song.  Here’s one comment for “Flint”

[It’s easy to become overwhelmed by our inability to change anything politically when the elected are ok with poisoning their own constituents and destroying the land. From the water crisis in Flint and the pipelines at Standing Rock and Sabal Palm, to the mass polluting of South Florida waters by Big Sugar companies (many of whom are top financial supporters of our highest-powered state politicians), its obvious that many in power care more about the corporate hands in their pockets than the lives they’re meant to represent.]