Show Review: Karaoke Mood Killer, Diary, Phil Spector’s Gun, Waah
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“We’re not going to accept the life we don’t deserve.”
January 15, 2024
Sunday night we were at Manhattan's Knitting Factory to see Karaoke Mood Killer, Diary, Phil Spector’s Gun, and Waah. We’re at the bar having a drink and talking music with a friend before the show when the conversation turns to our recent article “Rock Archives: Nirvana’s 1989 NYC Pyramid Club Show”. A shot of Makers Mark hits us in the face right before a tsunami of realization hits us that we are at the Pyramid Club. The Knitting Factory at 101 Avenue A is The Pyramid Club that lived at 101 Avenue A. This moment alone should have tipped us off that we were in for a treat.
Karaoke Mood Killer opened the night with clean grooves and wahed out solos. The four piece had an airy and polished sound which gave room for intermittent guitar solos that folded gritty noise into the equation. Soloing can be epic, but also hazardous. At one point the lead guitarist's cable got caught underneath his wah pedal and for a moment we feared a signal decapitation was about to take place. A strong rhythm section rounded out the songs and had us moving our feet.
Diary crowded onto the stage and spent much of their set delightfully animated, trying not to smack each other with their gear. Early on one of the drummer's cymbals toppled over. Not a second after noticing did someone from the audience leap on stage, stand it back up, and secure the fasteners. The hero Gotham deserves. Every song had a vibrant palette, our favorite moments were when male and female vocals came together in unison.
Phil Spector’s Gun came all the way from Philly to show us what we’ve been missing. Their set opened with crushingly scuzzy loudness. This rhythm section had dirt on it in the best possible way. It was difficult to absorb all the great nuances within their performance. Second guitar crafted some incredibly melodic lead lines and their drummer could swing in his sleep. There was also a corded telephone from your grandparents house on stage that the frontman/guitarist used as a prop, plot device, and guitar pick.
Waah closed the night out in style. We called their set “time bomb music”. Drums and bass would hold down a groove while guitar psyched out, building noise and tension that was going to explode at any moment. We looked at the guitarist's pedalboard to see how this psychic strain was crafted and saw our two favorite pedals, the Line 6 DL4 MkII and the almighty Big Muff. They were there for a good time and we had a good time.
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