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Secret Tombs Super Show


On January 11th 2013 there was a huge show at Howlers where three local bands played and some weird stuff happened.  It always seems that these "all locals" shows are the biggest which is kind of weird, but I guess Pittsburgh is really as clique-y as everyone thinks it is.  Regardless, I like these kinds of shows too, usually because of the large mix of people that normally wouldn't all be together at the same time.  That one element puts these shows over the top of what they might normally be.  Anyway here's my review:



The Lampshades played first, starting soon after I came in.  They sounded, like always, like a mix between a few different alternative bands.  A good description might be to say that they are like a poppier (but still heavy, maybe heavier?) Nirvana with Pavement's vocalist.  I thought that tonight their guitarist wasn't loud enough or maybe the bass was too loud.  It was awesome anyway still.


The Lopez was second.  They played some of their two-person electro-noise-punk.  This set seemed longer than usual, and  I never noticed how much Steph sounds like Kim Gordon until this show.  The Lopez was possibly a little too sloppy or maybe there wasn't enough space in the music, but they are pretty cool.

 
Secret Tombs finished the night off; it was strange.  During their set a weird guy got on the stage, took off his shirt, and started making weird poses pretending to be in a band.  Josh Rievel handed him weird objects which he didn't seem to care about.  Nothing could make this guy budge; it was sort of like a sit-in, but what was the protest about?  Eventually a kind of tough guy came up and tried to get the big man down off the stage, but it took a long time.  There wasn't any confrontation, the big guy eventually got really disappointed and grabbed all of his gear, put his clothes back on, and then left.  After that even Secret Tombs had change their set because the owner of Howlers told them that they couldn't play covers; Howlers has got in trouble for that in the past.  Secret Tombs, even with all of the chaos around them, ended up playing a killer set.  I didn't know how good they were; this was only my second (sort of third) time to ever see them.  They have a cool punk sound that incorporates elements of rock 'n' roll and blues, kind of like the Dead Boys or Rocket from the Tombs.  Killer stuff!

Since this show ruled let's have some more shows where a few different groups of people are collaborating soon.  I feel like Roup House used to be like this which was probably why it was so cool.  Anyway, come out to see bands that aren't just yr friends or something dudesmen.
Here are some sounds from the show.