Whirr, Sannhet, Cloakroom & Sad Actor took over The Studio at Webster Hall (pics)
photos by Greg Cristman, words by Andrew Sacher
Whirr / Sannhet / Cloakroom @ The Studio at Webster Hall – 9/16/14
Whirr and Cloakroom‘s ongoing tour hit NYC last night (9/16) at The Studio at Webster Hall with Sannhet and Sad Actor for a quadruple onslaught of distortion, reverb and lots of volume. Philly’s Sad Actor kicked things off with their grungy jams, and their songs are good but they aren’t quite there as a live band yet. Still, it was promising stuff and a good start to the night.
Cloakroom followed with a set of a lot of new songs (they’ve got a double LP coming next year on Run for Cover) and a bit from their 2013 debut, and they were thunderous. When I wrote about their debut last year, I said it sounded like if Mineral were more into sludge metal, but last night was my first time seeing them live and I never realized just how sludge metal Cloakroom can get. Their riffs are huge, covered in thick distortion, and the whole band crushes. They didn’t say much on stage, and had samples going between most of their songs, so the whole thing was just a force.
For the second band on a four band bill, Cloakroom’s a tough act to follow but Sannhet, the local representation for the night, got up and kept the sensory overload going. Like they usually do, they played mostly in the dark with flashes of a white light show, and their instrumental post rock/post metal was as equally pretty and heavy as ever. Unfortunately, the night didn’t end well for them when their bass was stolen after their set.
Finally, Whirr wrapped up the show. I’d seen Whirr guitarist Nick Bassett play a few times in Nothing but last night was actually my first time getting to see Whirr. Like Nothing, Whirr are shoegaze in sound but punk in approach, thrashing around on stage and sounding heavy as hell. They played with the lights even dimmer than Sannhet, but if you’re looking for a light show, Whirr’s not the band to see. All of their energy goes into creating a huge wall of sound. The vocals are barely audible, and individual guitar riffs only shine rarely, instead coming together to create a full-on attack that few modern shoegaze bands achieve. Oh yeah, and lots of long hair flying around.
More pictures of all four bands below…
—
Sad Actor
Cloakroom
Sannhet
Whirr
