[DID NOT ATTEND: September 21, 2023] Karina Rykman / Guerrilla Toss
I’ve only been to The Wonder Bar once and I really liked it. Strange how in all these years since there haven’t been any bands I’ve wanted to see there (not exactly true, but the few I’ve wanted to always conflicted). Then Karina Rykman announced a surprise show there.
My wife and I saw her open for Guster and she was great live. I’ve since listened to a bunch of her live shows online and she’s a great performer.
When I saw that this tour promised that Guerrilla Toss was opening, I needed to go. So, even though I had a ticket to see Boris, a band I never want to miss when they come here (especially since they almost called it quits recently), I grabbed a cheap ticket to Karina just in case it sold out.
Then Melvins drummer, Dale Crover injured himself and was going to miss the tour. I actually wondered if it might get postponed. But no. But Karina announced a show in Philly at Milkboy an I grabbed a ticket for that. It doesn’t look like Guerrilla Toss is going to play that show which is a bummer. But Karina is worth schlepping into center city Philly in December.
I don’t exactly remember what first attracted me to Guerrilla Toss. I had heard very good things about them, although I don’t remember what. I also don’t think I heard about them before 2014 when they were apparently really crazy as this clip from Impose notes:
What I loved about that band in 2014 is not what I love about them now. As long time fans of Toss know, the band is much different now. They’ve ditched the nudity, the three-song sets, the mindless and sometimes violent thrashing. Guerilla Toss brought this hurricane of inescapable absurdity and frantic release; there was always a feeling of, “I need to get this out of me, whatever it is, right fuckin’ now.” On the last three releases, they’ve synthesized the pop even further into a truly danceable and quite accessible experience, one that retains the absurdity and the anxiety that Toss fans have always really appreciated. The reason I love Guerilla Toss now is because not only can I continue to move to their music, but it’s entered a space that ultimately does not push out those who might be afraid to mix with the obscure, the scary, the sometimes absurdly violent environments that the old Guerilla Toss would bring with them everywhere they go. And yet they haven’t fully ditched that angle either. Guerilla Toss, the way I see it anyways, is a chance for experimental, fans-of-the-fringe, noise heads to fuck with mainstream indie-pop, and for mainstream indie-pop heads to fuck with the noise.
I have to say when I listened to them recently I thought they sounded really safe, so maybe they have matured really really far in ten years. I wonder if their shows are still fun. And I suppose there’s still a chance they’ll play in Philly.
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