Hear ye, hear ye! For those of you enamored with cacophonic punk-styled rock, then the High Noon Saloon should be your primary destination Friday night. May 2, Cloud Nothings, alongside Fire Retarded and Protomartyr, will be bringing their mutual noisiness together under one roof, ready to blow off that aforementioned ceiling.
Local band Fire Retarded have been plying their trade around Madison for a few years now and have established a heady reputation for themselves as purveyors of a stunning live show. Recently, in mid-April, they released their debut album, Scroggz Manor, a set of raucous headbangers riddled with spacey sound effects, driven by dent-up chromium riffs. There’s nary a slow song on the record, and between titles like “Brain Burger” and “Dicktator,” it’s all fun.
The second act on the billing, Protomartyr, also released their debut album in April, titled Under Color of Official Right. Hailing from Detroit, the band’s intensity mirrors that of Fire Retarded couches it in more decidedly tenebrous feelings. Broadly, Protomartyr’s more post-punk, with discernable elements and rhythms drawn from surf rock (the chiming chords of “Maidenhead”) and even disco (“Tarpeian Rock”). There are plenty of places where they play it straight, with walls of guitars fracturing like glass, underpinned with steady drums and pulsing bass (“Scum, Rise!” “What The Wall Said”).
If that isn’t enough, lead singer Joe Casey, throughout Under Color of Official Right (in this reporter’s opinion) sounds a smidge like Nick Cave with a head cold. That’s a compliment, I guess. It fits the music, and it’ll be fascinating to see how it translates live.
Headliner Cloud Nothings have been around the block a few times now, ever since springing from the fancy of lead singer/guitarist Dylan Baldi in 2009. Not punk per se, Cloud Nothings’ music nonetheless styles itself around a punky brand of propulsion, coupled with Baldi’s persona-inflected lyrics, which straddle the realms of rant and testimony.
With the (also April) release of their album Here and Nowhere Else, and recently unencumbered of a second guitarist, the band has struck a balance between the somberness of their last album Attack on Memory and their more poppier efforts. Songs like “Psychic Trauma” and “No Thoughts” exemplify poppy punky rock music centered on lively navel-gazing.
May 2 promises to be an exciting night at the High Noon Saloon, with the suite of punk-inspired music being offered by this triumvirate of headlong bands. The show begins at 9:30 p.m.
