THE CROWN – 1910 N CHARLES ST, BMORE, 21218
At turns ageless light in a starless sky and angry twink screaming about video games, Turd Merlin is nothing if not an enigma. Evil poo magic mixes with the tantalizingly avant garde as electronics meet outsider tropes in what can only be described as a project that’s both bizarre and absolutely original.
7:00 PM
DICQBEATS is a noisy menace and we’re here for it in the worst way. Breakcore meets hardcore brevity with 0 to 100 participatory dance pits bolstered by enormous, intense electronics. Docs become dancing shoes as shoves break into a high-speed electronic party of the most intense and epic order.
7:30 PM
Cora Stone angles between Mazzy Star atmospherics and southern-tinged indie pop. Heavy guitars and outsized fuzz counterpoint sweet-as-sugar vocals. The result is a soft, longing aggression – equal parts mournful and cathartic – that runs shoegaze swirls between the stars and the sky.
8:00 PM
American rock n’ rollers The Lushpockets careened off the Pacific Coast highway in their cherry red cadillac after a sock hop. A passing UFO saved their lives, transporting them 70 years into the future… Now, after years of testing in federal facilities, these teenbeat garage crooners are back in action.
8:30 PM
One of Batimore’s most fiery up-and-comers, JRDN and the Switchblades turn indie-punk on top of itself, garage-rocking, shoegazing, and frantically rocking it all out. Watch your back pop punk. Something new is on the way and this is its energy.
9:00 PM
Killer femme-fronted survival hardcore act Dared2Live don’t need 3 minutes to break you into pieces. The band’s 2-minute hybrid hardcore/metal beatdowns are intense, cathartic, and all-out aggressive. 90-second pits never felt as intense.
9:30 PM
Irreverent synth-punk no wavers Tear Sponsor don’t just delight in tears, they demand them. During the breakdown, lead mourners scamper about the room collecting any and all emissions. Every room in their house is lined with shelves of vials and vials and vials. Tears, delicately labeled and sorted.
10:00 PM
MONDRARY
No Baltimore heavy bill would be complete without a devastatingly terrific screamo band (no, not that kind!). Mondrary hurtles onto the stage like Unwound, but really, really friggin unwound. Sky-reaching riffage breaks into melodic laments, only to level screams aimed to even higher atmospheres.
10:30 PM
Baltimore’s greatest no-jazz band, Microkingdon are an ecstatic and long-running conundrum. Is it free jazz? Is it guitar noise? Is it post-punk? Avant garde insanity? Depends on the day. In all scenarios, the ensemble possesses a highly cognitive spiritual magnetism that creates an all-consuming, ego-obliterating, out-of-body experience.
11:00 PM
A verdant outgrowth of psychic distress, Mast Year is a dark forest where something nameless follows just steps behind you on a moonless night. Upset and heavy, post metal?
11:30 PM