Aids Wolf / HEALTH / USAISAMONSTER @ The Triple (11-04-08)

Last night I made what was quite possibly one of my best decisions in quite some time. Instead of spending election night sitting around a couch and probably digesting foods of the sweet sort, I instead spent my night with a triple effect of noise rock explosions by heading to The Triple to see Aids Wolf / HEALTH / USAISAMONSTER play live.

The night started with a group I believe went by the name Dynamite Club. There set was simple and very amusing (this was mostly due to the fact that the main singer of the group played just in his underwear, with a hint of having nothing on at all, and yet was able to hid his junk the entire time, it took talent). OK so my point is this. While their stage presence was amusing, they whole thing just seemed to be weird for the sake of weird. Also they really didn't seem to have there own sound going on, and while there is nothing wrong with that, I just wouldn't expect to see much from this group in my life anytime soon.

After their set a moment in my life I won't forget did happen. See behind the dancing area of the bar there was a TV set up to keep everyone up to date about the the election. Well literally right after Dynamite Clubs set ended the TV displayed the news that Barrack Obama had won the election. I feel like that moment right there is just something that I and everyone their will remember for the rest of there lives. And it honestly doesn't even matter what party affiliation any of the people there had. Just the fact that a black man will now be president is something I don't think most people thought would ever happen. Its mind blowing as fuck

Now after that very historic moment USAISAMOSNTER came on. I had never seen these guys live before but had heard many interesting stories about this guys and the ruckus they brought to my hometown Charlottesville back in the early 2000's when they lived there and ran the quasi-legal pudhouse venue. Now their set was a very solid fuzz rock sort of thing. while that does sound like a lame definition of there show there really is something special about there live set. I personally assume that after all these years playing together and building this very respectable reputation they have learned to now play there part and just play a very solid and fun set of Noise Rock.

After that came HEALTH, who was the group I was most excited about seeing that night. The main reason for such excitement was last year HEALTH came to c-ville but I sadly missed the show due to lacking any sort of transportation home, but this time that wasn't gonna be an issue and I was gonna get my hyperactive noise on. Now for the record it was so worth the wait to see them play live. They bring this great experimental dance/rock thingy going on that is hard to explain. Its got the energy that early animal collective records have, but is mixed with great lo-fi dance rock that goes on random convulsion tangents that are just pure blissful. So basically HEALTH lived up to everything I hoped they would be and more. Easily one of the best sets I've seen so far this year.

After them was the last set of the night and it came from Aids Wolf. I wont lie I was sort of surprised they played after HEALTH espically due to all the press HEALTH has been getting recently (espically since joining NIN on tour) but even with this feeling of getting over shadowed by HEALTH their set was still fucking great. They bring this wave of noise that just hits you and then once you feel like you've got some stability back in your head it hits you some more. Its really quite a interesting thing to see live, because you can see some of the members in the audience just sort of weirded out by the live antics of Aids Wolf, while the others members of the audience are fully on board for this disastrous trip that is just hard but not love. Also the moshing during this set was just what I needed for this week, thanks for that guys, it was fun fun fun.

So to sum up this whole event, I would say it was fucking top notch. Saw some really great experimental music, and had a real great time doing my vibration dancing. Also if you have to opportunity to see any of these 3 acts live i would highly recommend it, they are all fucking great, and it was really quite a trip to have them all playing the same show all together.

(photo courtesy of ACE McMANAGAN PHOTO!)