I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: June 6, 2024] Tomato Flower

I was really excited to see Melt-Banana and I had to assume that any bands that opened for them would be interesting.  I had listened to a little bit of Tomato Flower before the show and I was really interested in them.

And they proved to be utterly fantastic.  I loved everything about them.

Their songs were jagged and indie, weird and delightful.  They reminded me of Palm (one of my favorite weirdo bands) for the unexpected shifts in tempo and direction.  They had two singers Jamison Murphy and Austyn Wohlers (who is also a novelist).

I was in front of these two so couldn’t really see bassist Ruby Mars.  And I couldn’t see drummer Mike Alfieri at all.

Austyn sang most of the lead vocals with Jamison adding a lot of second vocals (not really backing vocals but unique melody lines).  Although the opening song “Destroyer” has Jamison screaming the title word between two quiet guitar lines.  It’s catchy but decidedly weird.

Most of the songs they played came from their new album No.

I enjoyed watching Jamison play the weird guitar parts like on Sally & Me which had a pretty, picked part that ended with a rough scratched triplet that jumped back to the picked part.   It also has a totally trippy middle section which they described in an interview as “there’s a drop in the middle section where everyone gets creative and grooves the fuck out.”

I love that their songs had lots of parts.  One of these Boudica is pretty complex.  It’s not out yet, but I’d love to hear it again.

Temple of the Mind is a shirt song that opens with a wild section in which Austyn made sounds like a slide whistle on the keyboard. It then jumps into a relatively conventional song (even if its not even 2 minutes long).

In fact most of their songs were quite short.  And it impressed me even more that they could write complex songs with really different textures that were only a few minutes long.

During one section, Austyn got on her knees in front of her amp and just started making all kinds of weird sounds while the rest of the band played on.  And I love that.

I don’t really understand how four people agree that the weird music they are making is what their band should sound like.  But I love that it happens and I love that Tomato Flower is doing it.

I hope I get to see them again.

1. Destroyer Ø
2. Radical Ø
3. Boudica–
4. Hi Cult–
5. Sally & Me Ø
6. No Ø
7. Temple of the Mind Ø
8. Saint Ø
9. Down–
10. Jem Ø

Ø No (2024)