Rrreviews

Show Review: The New Colossus Festival Shoegaze Day Party At Arlene’s Grocery. March 9th, 2024.

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Rain showers outside, sound showers inside

By Tube Screamer

March 10, 2024

One of our favorite events to enjoy in NYC is the New York City Marathon. It’s grueling, it’s electric, it’s jammed packed. Yesterday's shoegaze marathon at Arlene’s Grocery as part of The New Colossus Festival was all those things and more. The day was so stacked that it was split up into two portions. This is the day party review featuring Iceblynk, Bloody Knives, Silent Mass, Sunnsetter, Talking to Shadows, Glimmer, and Keep.

Iceblynk kicked it all off with thick daydreamy jams that felt akin to surfing. Rhythm guitar was spaced out with a phaser effect carving its own waves into the sound. One song began with soothing arpeggios. Their frontwoman sang about sunshine and turned her face up into the spotlight with a smile, as if it were the sun.

Bloody Knives built anticipation while setting up, the power-trio had swapped out the role of bassist in lieu of a sound wizard at a table full of knobs and buttons. Their set burst free from the start with a DnB adjacent drum beat. The entire rhythm section stayed heavy handed, these songs HIT you. Sound wizard controlled basslines, samples, and effects crafting a cinematic noisescape. Verbed out vocals and distant guitar filled the room like the foggy afternoon it was. And the drummer had to keep tightening the kit because he was pounding the nuts and bolts loose.

Silent Mass’s frontwoman passed out Girl Scout cookies from center stage to the audience before their set. Samoas, too. The fucking best. She also wielded a black Fender Jazzmaster we could not keep our eyes off of. She strummed it while holding the whammy bar, which one must do with that weapon. There was a slight haze in the room and you could see a beam of white spotlight hitting the silver bridge of the guitar as she swayed, bouncing the light back out to the crowd. Their songs were slow and atmospheric, lots of high guitar warping and feedback.

Sunnsetter was lush with two six strings and a synth pad. We’ve realized that walls of sound are similar in shape but not in form. This wall of cruising noise was built from massive two chord odysseys. We were trying to find words to describe the driving power of the bass when we saw a little sticker of an alligator by the volume knob. And that’s all we need to say. Some songs were slow, but never without power. The set ended in a colossal feedback jam of noise with almost every instrument winding up on the floor.

Talking to Shadows’s frontwoman declared “Thank you, we love you” at the opening of their set. Her voice soared above this wall of sound, making the moment ethereal for us. The best music manifested itself during peak noise, like when guitar used a delay effect to drench a chorus in color.

During Glimmer's setup we saw a Sub Pop sticker on the case to one of their guitar amps. Sometimes they make us think about a specific Sub Pop sound, and that sound is the Big Muff. This rhythm section produced the densest crunch of the day. Like Grape Nuts cereal, or a car crash, or tectonic plates. It’s hardly a mess though, in fact it’s incredibly melodic. Gold spotlights shined down at the end, reflecting off the metal of their instruments. Glimmering.

Keep began with a sick drum groove, then a deep slithering bass line sneaking in. Their lead singer was the drummer which is always crazy to see. Even more shocking because the beats were acrobatic. We started to wonder how the house kit could take such a beating like it had so far in the day, then we saw that the symbols were chipped and cracked. These were the moodiest grooves of the day.

Connect with these bands on social media below! This was a rockin day, and it was only the day party. Stay tuned for the night party review up next.