I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: October 29, 2022] Tropical Fuck Storm

I saw Tropical Fuck Storm open for Modest Mouse four years ago and I was really impressed by them.  Since then, they have put out a couple more albums and seem to have made some headway into the American market (even with a name like that).

This show was sold out (it was their first show in Philly).  However, it was also a night that the Phillies were playing in the World Series.  So, the crowd was not packed in tight.  It worked out for everyone–the band got a sold out show and I didn’t have someone on my toes.

The band came out were fun but not super chatty.  I’m pretty amazed to see that they played largely the same set that they played back in 2018–especially since they have two new albums out since then.

They opened with “Braindrops” (from my favorite of the three albums).  I love the way the band sounds like a big pile of chaos and yet they are all really tight and focused.

I was in front of RKO (Erica Dunn) who mostly played guitar and occasional keys.  In the middle was Gaz, (Gareth Liddiard).  Off to the far side was Fifi (Fiona Kitschin).  On the drums was Hammy or Hammer (Lauren Hammel).  And she smashed the drums harder than anyone I’ve seen.

I loved watching RKO play wild guitar parts–sometimes conventional chords, sometimes solos.

But really it was Gaz who was the focal point.  And how could he not be since he sang most of the songs and played a frenetic and noisy lead guitar.  He has a huge stack of effects pedals, including what I’m thinking is some kind of loop, so that when he does … something, it sounds like a siren going off (but only for a second).

His playing is loose and seemingly crazy and yet full controlled with his hands almost never off of the whammy bar.

One of my favorite parts of their songs is when RKO and Fifi sing backing vocals.  They have great voices, but they can also sing in a surprisingly high register as well–which contrasts perfectly to Gaz’s low growl.

RKO sang lead on “New Romeo Agent,” a kind of slow burning song.

The crowd was very much into the whole set but they went nuts for “You Let My Tyres Down,” a personal favorite of mine, too.  It’s just as frenetic and wild as the rest but with a slow and catchy chorus.

FiFi sang lead on the cover of the Stooges Ann, a slow moody piece.   They ended with “Two Afternoons,” a song that has slow verses but is just a noise fest in the beginning and the end.  As this was the last song, they really jammed out the end with Gaz squatting on the stage playing with effects pedals and causing all kinds of noisy feedback–glorious chaos.

They came back after a couple of minutes and played “Paradise,” a killer song from Braindrops.  On the record it’s 6 minutes long but they stretched it out even longer with noisy jamming sections and aural chaos.

I thought they might do another song (they had been playing “Stayin’ Alive” as a second encore.  And they’d already long passed the 11PM mark (there’s no curfew apparently).  But nope, that was it.  I would have really enjoyed one more song, but it was clearly an exhausting set and it was quite an intense 75 minutes.  Highly recommended.

⊗ A Laughing Death in Meatspace (2018)
∀ Braindrops (2019)
♠ Deep States (2021)