I just saw Social Circkle play the best set I've seen at Whitney House this year, when until this weekend I wasn't sure if I even liked them. At first I just presumed Social Circkle were another commie-core band (you know, like al quint rock), and then when I heard some of their records and found out otherwise I still wasn't quite digging it, though I liked a couple of songs. Not that the records aren't good in an "Inside My Brain"/"Wild In The Streets"/pre-LP Black Flag sort of way (or like a Psyched to Die/Guilty Faces without the endless guitar leads/any other current L.A.-sounding band sort of way), but they also suffer from the same weak guitar sound that a lot of those early-'80s records had. Saturday, though, Social Circkle were a fucking all-out blast; the guitar was loud, much louder than the demo or any of the records, and the drummer was awesome. It didn't seem like he was up to the thrashier songs all that much, but on the slower songs it was like he was nailing the sweet spot with every hit. I mean, Social Circkle live are a total wrecking ball, plus they've got the kind of songs ("I'm! placed! under suspicion!") that you can go nuts shouting along to, if you want.
Saturday's show was a great show to be at if you like kick-ass drummers, because besides the guy in Social Circkle you also had Ross of Iron Hand and Tim of Oiltanker/The Hammer, in my opinion the two best drummers in CT. The Hammer are basically Oiltanker +1 (sometimes +2), but are more "punk" than Oiltanker I guess, though it's not always easy for me to tell the difference (I've got these shitty earplugs, I think I need to buy a more expensive pair). Shitty earplugs must be the reason why I can't always tell what Iron Hand is doing, also-- I've seen them twice this year, and they've been awesome both times, and I still can't always figure out what song they're playing even though I've listened to their '08 demo countless times. Again, maybe I'm just thrown off by how much quicker they're sounding as a band. Despite my own personal sound perception problems, having Iron Hand back playing shows again is like having Duke Snider back playing for the Dodgers.
Foreign Objects also played towards the middle of the bill, and though they were probably the band I was psyched to see the most, the guitar sounded too dry this time and it took me a while to warm up to their set. They brought out a couple of new songs which seem to be moving in an even slower direction (not good); their single from last year is still one of the best 7"-ers I've heard over the past few years, and I'm happy that I'm finally getting the chance to post "Leave Me", since I've been wanting to put that one up for a while now.
Social Circkle -
"City Shock"
"Problem Child"
Foreign Objects -
"Leave Me"
Iron Hand -
"An Ode To No One"
(all of these files are now listen-only)
