Bursting, Quiet Man, Positronix, Subtle Body
Cousin Danny's
5001 Market St.
Philadelphia
May 17, 2026
There is a pretty sizable group of musicians who have migrated here to Philadelphia from Florida. Before a number of people from Orlando, Miami, DeLand and elsewhere left their respective Floridian scenes for other locations around the country in the years around 2010, a familiarity had already been built between musicians within Florida who would travel to each other’s hometowns to play. Now that more Floridians are filling up Philly, it feels like a family reunion of sorts every time someone from this specific era of Florida DIY comes through to perform a show in our city.
Floridians ride hard for each other, in general. Just last week, a beloved Orlando club owner whose venue has been a proving ground for years was detained by ICE at his own establishment. Instantly, musicians from around the country set efforts in motion to support and hopefully help free him from custody, with new actions being taken daily. A GoFundMe has been set up for his legal representation, and as someone who has played there, met him, and respects the Orlando music community, sharing it is the least I can do.
Rally For Uncle Lou’s Legal Support
Chicago rockers Bursting came to Philadelphia last Sunday on their first visit to the city with the gig handled by me at none other than Cousin Danny’s. Their guitarist Ben is of this Florida contingent. For this show, I wanted to host a mix of bands that had been kicking up dust in the city lately, while also including an act that I knew would pleasantly surprise everyone despite their unfamiliarity. I also wanted bands who had sort of a dark, dusky vibe in their music, as it would fall well in line with Bursting’s sound. I went with Subtle Body and Positronix, two post-punk bands who have both played Cousin Danny’s quite a few times; add on Quiet Man, a heavy as hell post-metal quartet who I believe were making their Danny’s debut (but don’t quote me on that). The lineup of this show induced a co-mingling of friends and coworkers; people in these bands work at some of the establishments, know the same people, or are from Florida.
Subtle Body began around 8 p.m. with their experimental goth/post-punk. I love watching this band develop and have no shortage of good things to say about Bo Spiller’s stage presence. Subtle Body was simultaneously moody and driving as Spiller treated the entire room as their playground, shrieking and surrounding themself with the audience before dropping to their knees in the middle of the room. Chorused-out guitar wound in and out of pulsing tom-based drum patterns, perfect for making you bop and stomp. In order to avoid sounding like a bit of a broken record, I’m just going to refer you to my previous piece about them and include this short video I took of them.
The doomy post-metal of Quiet Man was truly wonderful. Similarly to Bursting, they remind me of Mastodon — but Quiet Man hits specifically like the Atlanta quartet’s Remission era, maybe with some touches of bands like Neurosis and Isis. After their set, my friend Zach (a Florida man) was like, “While they were playing I wondered if they weren’t secretly from Florida in 2005.” Quiet Man’s guitarist played a double-necked behemoth that featured a mandolin instead of a 12-string guitar, which is something that I, and maybe no one else in the room, had ever seen before. Quiet Man’s dirges were entirely made up of evil, hypnotic grooves and eerie leads that made the performance feel like one long composition.
Bursting is a little hard to describe. The Mastodon influence is also present here as it was with Quiet Man, but I would say their sound aligns more closely with the Blood Mountain and Crack The Skye eras that centered around clean singing over screaming. Somehow, Bursting combines post-metal, prog, and indie rock in a way that sounds god-awful on paper, but produces astonishing results in practice. The band features the previously mentioned Ben Rudolph, whose other band Stress Positions is fucking amazing, as well as Yautja’s Tyler Coburn and Kayhan Vaziri, which makes for a pretty mean crew supporting vocalist/guitarist Kortland Chase’s lyrical explorations. Somehow, they add a progressivism to riffs that reminds me of a band like Cave In. Bursting’s technicality, especially in the drumming, is simply dizzying.
STRESS POSITIONS (USA) - Live Multicam - Manchester Punk Festival 2025 - MPRV News
Yautja on Audiotree Live (Full Session)
Positronix finished the evening with their angular, synthy post-punk that I had been waiting excitedly for months to see. They play often, especially with the release of their new EP Miss Universe, but I have consistently missed opportunities to catch a show. Sometimes the only opportunity is the one you create for yourself. I love guitarist Bill’s tone in this band. A member of Zorn and Philly upstarts Mopar Stars, all of his bands he plays with are very different from each other, but the Positronix guitar is unique and mixes perfectly with vocalist/keyboardist Amelia’s synth tones. I think it’s an octave pedal but I’m often wrong. I love Positronix’s pageantry. For the entirety of their set, Amelia wore what appeared to be an executioner’s hood, serving as her own contribution to the unspoken dark theme that had come to define the gig. Amelia of Positronix, by the way, is the same Amelia who hosted the spelling bee I almost died at. Everyone is so multi-talented!
