[ATTENDED: January 24, 2020] The Retinas [rescheduled from November 10, 2019, replaced Mattiel]
The Retinas are a Philly band. I hadn’t heard of them before this show.
They are a guitar/bass/drum trio with a great sound. In fact sometimes there were sounds and I’m not sure where they were coming from–loops?, samples? pedals? who knows.
They opened with a synth line (from where?) while singer Tom McHugh sang an opening lyric in his distinctive voice.
I loved the way the song built with some really impressive drumming from Anthony Filgnitti–whom I was standing in front of. I couldn’t really see bassist Andy Silverman because of the people next to me, but his low end was essentially to anchoring the overall sound.
McHugh had great stage presence. It helped that there were a lot of people there to see them (at least McHugh said there were–and I actually saw someone with a Retinas jacket in the crowd).
I don’t know the names of the songs but in this one, Filgnitti had an amazing drum flurry a few times mid song–it seemed like he was even doing double bass, but maybe that was floor tom. I loved the way the song went from super intense to chill at the drop of a beat.
The band had a great garage rock sound and worked in fun elements of psychedelia in the vocals and lyrics.
McHugh had a kind of David Bowie delivery in some of the songs. I also thought a bit about the New York band Chappo in style and tone.
I particularly liked this song called “Vote fro Pedro” (which has some rally funny lyrics) for the way it shifted gears and features some yips and yelps from McHugh.
In addition to big chords, McHugh also played some pretty picked melodies I was fascinated by the way he held his pick.
Their set was wonderfully diverse with some quiet songs, including a harmonica intro from Silverman on “Big Fish” (a song about his dad). The set ended with a ripping jam which totally rocked.
They were great fun and I was really glad they opened.
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