Show Review: Beautiful Freaks, Reduction Plan, A Total Wreck at Alphaville.
August 3rd, 2024.
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“Daydreams of 100 bullets for 100 fascists”
August 4th, 2024
Last night the 14th St/8th Ave L platform was hotter than Dante’s sixth circle. We went to Hell and back to get to Alphaville to see A Total Wreck, Reduction Plan, and Beautiful Freaks rock out. Rain poured down, soaking our fur on the crawl to the venue. A crack of lightning split open the sky like a bomb as we cut through Maria Hernandez Park, an omen alluding to the explosive acts we were about to witness. Here’s our memory of the evening:
Hello, can you hear me now? One of A Total Wreck’s guitarists had an old telephone receiver taped to the mic stand. For their second song their vocalist picked up a bass, arming this four piece band with two bassists. They were unafraid of defying convention. Some of their songs were both sides of the punk coin, sludgy and slow one moment and furiously fast the next.
Reduction Plan activated a drum machine that stomped incessantly while a Rickenbacker overdriven to high heaven unwound the thickest snake of a groove. The steady metronome of the drum machine cast a hypnotic spell on the rest of the band's swell of noise, like the seconds of a clock ticking around in a room on fire. Waves of distortion pounded against this impenetrable wall of mechanical beat, but it would not break.
Beautiful Freaks are on tour from Seattle, all the way across the map. They’re celebrating the release of their debut album We Talk To Birds, playing the title track early on in their set. This quintet poured out sweet riffs with a slightly sour turn to them. We came back from the bathroom to hear them introduce a song by saying “This one goes out to Seattle, and NPR.”. They were repping the 206 all the way in Brooklyn, their vocalist in an Easy Street Records hoodie. This band was the kind of breezy, introspective calm you get after you light the fuse to a firework, the quiet satisfaction of knowing you’re soon about to see a dazzling explosion of light and sound.
It was over before we knew it. Shouts out to Lori Jayne, the best bar kitchen in the game, try their steak frites and you will agree. Connect with Beautiful Freaks, Reduction Plan, and A Total Wreck below if you missed the show! See you round, Rrrat Pack.
