Optic Sink, Eraser, Mesh
Space 1026
844 N Broad St.
Philadelphia
March 19, 2022
Space 1026 has a new location! The volunteer-run art and event space previously located at 10th and Arch now resides at Broad and Poplar. It turns out that this has been the case for maybe a couple of years. I stupidly went to get dinner at Tom’s Dim Sum beforehand (I got pork belly and bok choy with a side of stir fried udon, it slapped) thinking it was at the same place it used to be, but my maps app elucidated my mistake, causing me to miss the poetry of opener Owen Ahearn-Browning. At the very least, I can drop Owen’s Bandcamp down below so you can get a sense of what’s going on. The poems, which each come with a peaceful synth accompaniment, kinda feel like a cross between voicemails put to music and the memes people make of their spoken thoughts being put to nature videos with midwest emo style guitar playing underneath. I don’t know what genre you’d call that, but either way I don’t mind it.
Owen Ahearn-Browning: Improvisations 1
After settling in and acquainting myself with one of the nicer DIY space bathrooms I’ve used, Mesh started. Jangly guitars, driving punchy rhythms, and modal, repetitive basslines that tied everything together quickly characterized their approach, and while I’ve seen their influences listed as Wire, UV Race, and Swell Maps, their live grooves also hit me with splashes of Gang of Four if they had gotten really into emulating '60s psychedelic stuff like Mr. Tambourine Man-era The Byrds and also could somehow see into the future and learn about the emergence of bands like D.L.I.M.C. Admittedly, this largely comes from the interplay between the guitars, one of which was one of those slick trapezoidal Vox 12-strings, so in a way it’s kinda like they had three guitars. Shoutout to their bassist Tom, and he knows why.
The Byrds - The Bells of Rhymney
D.L.I.M.C. - November Cassingle
Optic Sink, on tour from Memphis, set up a veritable laboratory of synths and drum machines next. Two Korg synths over there, the classic, a Roland TR-808, over here, and next to it a DrumBrute? Shit I’d never seen or heard of before beyond that too. The way I was researching the gear as they were using; dude where the fuck do you be finding an Alesis Ineko? With this, plus guitar, bass, and vocals (which at times were interchangeable amongst members), Optic Sink did a kind of post-punk made as much for discotheques as dive bars. Despite unfortunate PA difficulties, Optic Sink’s danceability and experimentation never wavered. Their programmer/drummer held the crowd down with constantly danceable patterns as the rest of the band and various audience members took turns holding the power cord into one of the PA speakers to maintain signal. A good band always covers each other and works as a team.
Optic Sink made me think of a mix of a band like Automatic or Delta 5, but with the electronics and deadpan delivery of Gina X Performance. The former is a group I’ve crossed paths with a couple times in my travels whose drummer I’ve just learned is the daughter of Bauhaus’ Kevin Haskins, the latter is German electropop duo Gina Kikoine and Zeus B. Held, who were active in this project from the late 70’s to early 80’s. Optic Sink did well bridging the gap between post punk and electro, so well that afterwards I was left fantasizing about a secret Chromatics reunion show with Automatic and Optic Sink opening, and Gina X Performance also reuniting as direct support. That would rule.
Gina X Performance - No G.D.M.
Chromatics - “I Can’t Keep Running” Cherry LP
Last was Eraser, an exciting new no-wave band that’s been making a lot of noise in the last two years. Firmly in the lineage of greats like the previously mentioned Delta 5, Eraser marries significant experimentation and atonality with catchy and absurd vocal melodies. Bands like Delta 5 are bass and drum driven, as Eraser is, but Eraser also doesn’t really seem to give a fuck about your cilia. A lot of times, the guitar parts seem meant to fry your ears from the inside out. Sometimes these melodies are paired between vocalist Sonam’s vocals and synths and guitarist Pier’s parts, sometimes they do different things entirely, seemingly fighting against each other. Vocalist Sonam’s presence onstage is captivating, interactive, and fun; the kind earmarked by awkward confrontation and the freeing of intrusive impulses. This kind of performance is always inspiring and exciting to me, I feel like I get to see people’s true selves, and it’s how I like to show mine. Sonam loves to remind people that they’re really in the room together and this shit is happening in front of you.
One day, we’re going to be able to talk about the real feeling of music labeled as egg punk, as it was described near the tail end of its peak vs. the generalized tonal genre it’s been compressed into. It’s not like there isn’t cool stuff coming out of it, especially the Australian shit, but in my opinion, it’s two different things. I’ll mention the political and social liberal failure that coincided with it and how many people now wax poetic about how it was “the last time [they] had any hope,” how it’s linked, and how that all makes me feel. One day we’ll talk about the DEVOlution of it all. But today is not that day. What I will say is that the energy of the former isn’t gone, and Eraser is one of a few bands that shows this.
Delta 5 - Mind Your Own Business
And seriously, check out this bathroom.
