I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: June 17. 2024] Short Fictions

I didn’t know Short Fictions before this show.

They have a similar vibe to Los Campesinos!  A kind of delightful chaos that resolves into really catchy songs.  With a trombone!  Anda  xylophone!

The band rocked in a kind of bouncy ramshackle way, singing songs with titles like “Living in Places Like These Can Be Bad for Your Health (Can’t Live Here Anymore)”

They were fun and funny, introducing “I’m Going to Kill Myself with a Gun” by saying that the singer’s mom begged them not  to play that horrible song. But what she doesn’t realize is that it’s about unfair wages and economic inequality!

Some of the songs, like “Wasting” rocked a little harder than other, but other songs are twitchy and weird but also somehow sing-along worthy.  And then a song like “Self Betterment in a Time of Loneliness” had a middle section where the band just went crazy with super fast drums and cymbals.  Jittery and punky and a lot of fun.

There’s also interesting and thoughtful lyrics (“I’m Going to Kill Myself,” notwithstanding).  Sam Treber was an amusing frontman–playing off the disaffection between Pittsburgh (where they are from) and Philadelphia.  But also telling brief but amusing stories between songs.

I enjoyed the work of Chloe June on guitar (left handed solo work).  Alex Barkley played great basslines and Ryan Veith smashed the hell out of the drums (most of the time).

Nick Bursick added trombone which was always fun and someone I didn’t catch the name of came up to the front to play xylophone from time to time.

I’m glad to have seen them, and now I get to listen to them a little more creafully.

1. You Will Never Be the Best at Anything You Try (Surely Not) ⊗
2. Living in Places Like These Can Be Bad for Your Health (Can’t Live Here Anymore) ∇
3. Self Betterment in a Time of Loneliness Ø
4. Reno Nevada, January 2020 Ø
5. I’m Going to Kill Myself With a Gun Ø
6. Wasting Ø
7. Really Like You ∇