Control Top at Union Pool
photo by Kate Hoos

Control Top played Union Pool w/ Weeping Icon & Privacy Issues (pics)

Control Top and Weeping Icon began a tour together on Thursday night (3/5) at Brooklyn’s Union Pool, where they were joined by Privacy Issues. All three bands fit perfectly together on the bill, sonically building from the more stripped down Privacy Issues, to the dark and brooding Weeping Icon, and finally the fiery and intense Control Top. All three have lyrics that explore political themes that are pointed examinations of the decaying world we are presently inhabiting and what our individual place is in all of it.

After Privacy Issues opened the night with a set of instrumentally sparse tunes that packed a big political punch despite sounding laid back, Weeping Icon brought their dark-wave post punk, with effects-laden vocals, dirty, distorted bass lines, and driving drums. The set was built around swelling instrumental passages interspersed with lyrics that are also firmly political- critical of society, consumption, and social media.

Control Top put out their excellent first full length album Covert Contracts on Get Better Records last spring, and have been touring relentlessly, building their audience with their incendiary post-punk anthems. Headlining a packed Union Pool on Thursday night, they hit the stage and ripped right into a powerful set that was not for the faint of heart. They minced no words and spared not one ounce of energy as they pummeled through track after track from their debut record. During the title track, bassist Ali Carter looped her bassline, grabbed the mic, and launched herself full force into the crowd, running through and screaming the chorus, “EVERYTHING LOOKS LIKE A COMMERCIAL, IT’S A BRAND TO BE CONTROVERSIAL” along with fans who jumped on the mic with her. Intensely critical of the modern world and current conditions, bands like Control Top force you to look at the problem rather than look away, and confront our place in a dystopian landscape.

Check out pictures of the whole night in the gallery above.

Control Top play a second Brooklyn show tonight (3/6), this time with UK band Dry Cleaning at Saint Vitus, and it’s one of our 5 Best NYC Shows to See This Week.

photos and review by Kate Hoos