Howard’s Club H hosted an eclectic set of bands this past Thursday, July 2, when Epic Fail, A Gun for Hire and The Radio Broadcast played. The local bands all represented a distinct sound with two different takes on electro and post-punk performed.
The music started just before 11p.m., with Epic Fail opening the show with their unique take on electro-styled house. The band is made up of Patrick ‘Noisebot’ Griffith and Giulio ‘Brown Kid’ Ricciardi, and Griffith described the music as ‘Ghetto-tech slam beats with a French accent.’ The ridiculous description is fitting for the music, which at one point worked in audio clips from ‘Planet of the Apes.’ Epic Fail makes its music by mixing different backing tracks with a turntable and a laptop, blending the music while utilizing a variety of techniques to make each show original. The show was mostly strong, with sounds ranging from bouncy jungle rhythms to clanging industrial, though some sections dragged on painfully without anything interesting to show for it. The band had the most active audience of the night with a dedicated group shuffling for the majority of the set.”Epic Fail ended with a humorous medley that showed a lot of personality, and represents a lot of promise, provided that the two don’t take themselves too seriously.
As Epic Fail packed away their equipment, the duo of brothers Andrew and Zach Wilson prepared for their set as A Gun For Hire. Zach played guitar while Andrew played drums at what can best be described as garage post-punk. For these two, playing together is as much a matter of convenience as it is history, as Zach explains, ‘We play as a two-piece because it’s really hard to get more people together to practice, and this way everything is more economical.’
Nothing about their sound felt short-handed, however, as the two played several punishingly loud songs. Zach’s style borrows both blues and punk elements using a heavy level of distortion, giving the music a strong wall of sound feeling. At times the band seemed to channel elements of both Mission of Burma and Mclusky. Zach’s vocals were often drowned out, but in the amateur traditions of garage music this did not detract from the sound. The numerous broken strings, however, did interrupt any flow that was produced by the bands enthusiasm. A Gun For Hire is undeniably rough around the edges, and they make a lot of questionable decisions in their writing. That being said, the brothers are playing music that nobody else in the area is, and they show flashes of brilliance that make you forget about the misgivings. I may be biased due to a rock background, but this was the band of the night due to the unmitigated zeal they showed.
The third band to take the stage was The Radio Broadcast. This band continued the trend of duos, this time with a husband and wife working in tandem. While Epic Fail provided the show with a pure DJ sound, The Radio Broadcast combine that with live instrumentation. Mike Heilman was on drums, while Kristin Heilman played keyboard, sang vocals and worked the laptop with the electronic tracks they previously recorded. Married couples are a rare commodity in the music world, and on his early reservations about working with his wife, Mike said, ‘It was nerve-racking at first because she hadn’t played anything before, but she knows things I didn’t and I know things she didn’t so it definitely ended up evening itself out.’ The two played in earnest, and the songs were all put together cleverly, but they suffered from a quiet setup compared to the previous two bands. Still, the club sound the two put together was fun and smart. Kristin’s singing was enthusiatic, and Mike was precise in his drum work, but the software the two used seemed primitive, and not in a Kraftwerk way. If these two can get louder, it’ll bolster what is already a solid sound.
Howard’s showed that local music is going strong, even in the summer with a shrunken population. Each of the bands represented an original take on their genre, and even though they each had issues, all three could build their music around the strong points and leave an even bigger impression.
