Biblical | TOM BEEDHAM

U.S. Girls @ Polish Combatants Hall for WL14 – Feb. 15, 2014. Photo: Tom Beedham

By Tom Beedham
Meghan Remy’s U.S. Girls is not unlike Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails in that they are both the reclusive undertakings of independent, isolated minds. The titles imply plural involvement where in fact there is very little (if any) input coming from outside one singular source. Also not unlike Reznor, apparently, Remy has realized the utility of having a full band on hand to bring things together on a live platform.

Although Remy rounded up an outfit to perform at 961a College Street just back in December, giving further clout to the NIN comparisons, the group that assembled as U.S. Girls this time to play spacey covers of love songs—Paul McCartney and Wings’s “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five” among them—for Wavelength Music Festival changed up the format again: this time consisting of Simone TB of Ell V Gore on drums, Tim Westberg of Slim Twig and Smartboys rotating through guitar, bass, and piano duties, and Biblical drummer Jay Anderson on a rattle. So while Remy seems to be open to the idea of opening the doors to other musicians, at the same time, the Feb. 15 gig made it clear she’s not about to become confined to a structure that becomes dependent on a particular lineup.

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Originally published by Aesthetic Magazine.

By Tom Beedham

Biblical @ Polish Combatants Hall for WL14 – Feb. 15, 2014. Photo: Tom Beedham

When Nick Sewell declared multiple times throughout his band’s set that “We are Biblical,” the bass wielding frontman seemed to do so not just as a means of informing the audience whom to ask about at the merch table, but also as an adjective for the group’s grandiose approach to the aggressive technical riffage it clearly prides itself on. He might have had better luck elsewhere, however.

Although Biblical had amassed a small contingent of head banging listeners at the front of the crowd partway through its set, the band seemed to turn more away than it attracted. Performing on a bill featuring projects more inclined towards challenging traditionalized modes of musical and social conduct, perhaps the macho coding Biblical routes the aesthetic of both its live posturing and its muscly take on stoner rock and face melting “metal” was what did it, but it wasn’t long into the band’s set that interest (and the audience with it) waned.

It’s not as though Sewell was oblivious to the situation, though. He baited the eye rollers with a claim halfway through his set with a statement jesting that the band would have just two more 25-minute songs and then it would be over. It was still hard to tell if he was just joking or exaggerating the reality of the situation.

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Originally published by Aesthetic Magazine.