I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 5, 2023] Washer

I hadn’t heard of Washer before this show.  Turns out they are a duo–another duo who can make a good holy racket with just guitar (or bass) and drums.  Washer is Mike Quigley: guitar, vocals and bass and Kieran McShane: drums.

Quigley setup right in front of me (off to the side of the stage a bit), so I couldn’t really see McShane all that well.  Of course, the lighting was super dark so I couldn’t see him much anyway.

They started with a slow song, “King Insignificant” with Quigley playing guitar quietly and McShane keeping time.  It sounded good, and not at all like it was missing anything.  But then about 90 seconds into the song, McShane went bonkers on the drums and the song ended in a furious punk rock screamfest and they sounded massive.

Washer clearly don’t have time for things like solos.  Some songs barely have time for a chorus.  They played the first four songs of their newest album–two of which are 90 seconds long and two of which are just over two minutes.  And I liked each one better than the next,

They dipped into a couple of other new songs, but  they also played some older ones as well.

I didn’t realize that any of these songs were from any particular release, so I can’t say if there was much diversity in the songs.  But I was impressed at how each song sounded unique–some had interesting lead riffs, while others were just pummeling chords.  But I was overall really impressed by Quigley’s guitar playing.  For a few songs, he stopped the heavy chords and played some intricate fingerpicking–just briefly.

And all along, his pedals and strumming made you never miss the lack of other instruments.

The older songs (now that I know they are older) sounded a bit like The Front Bottoms (more in his vocal delivery than in a folk/punk way).  The newer songs seemed to have a much higher scream ratio.  Which was pretty satisfyingly.

After “Cheap Therapy,” Quigley switched to a bass guitar.  For the last four songs he played bass chords.  It wasn’t as loud and rumbly as I would have guessed.  Indeed, he played a lot of bass melodies on the higher notes, which really added a lot of texture to the songs.  “Your Guess…” had a very cool lead bass line.  And the final song “Porky” from their debut album was an all out punk riot fest.

When I listened to their records before the show I wasn’t that excited by them. But seeing them live, Washer was outstanding.  I really enjoyed their entire set.  And since I now see the surprising subtlety that they brought to these songs, I’m going to have to listen to the record again.

Washer

1. King Insignificant ♠
2. The Waning Moon ♠
3. Threadbare ♠
4. Not Like You ♠
5. False Prize ♠
6. Dog Go Bark ψ
7. Super Pop ⊗
8. Death of an Empire ♠
9. Cheap Therapy ♠
10. Your Guess Is As Bad As Mine ψ
11. Bass 2 ψ
12. Fail Big ♠
13. Porky ⇓

♠ Improved Means to Deteriorated Ends (2023)
⊗ Bethlehem Steel / Washer split (2018)
ψ All Aboard (2017)
⇓ Here Comes Washer (2016)