Live Show Review: Pinback and Ghetto Blaster
Pinback and Ghetto Blaster Live Show Review
By My Nguyen Dec 19th 2011
Not even quarter to eight and there was a crowd already filing into the underbelly of The Belly Up Tavern, one of San Diego’s premiere destinations for music. Dimly lit with Christmas décor interspersed inside the popular venue, Monday night, Dec. 19th, just happened to be a sold out show. And this was mostly due to the fact that Pinback was headlining, but that didn’t stop the San Diego-natives, Ghetto Blaster, from trying to steal the spotlight. Formed back in 2009, and comprising of the group members Greg Sudor (drums), Ryan Foxe (vocals), Cole Mears (bass), John Cota (guitar), Ghetto Blaster played their first live performance at Bar Pink on May 2010, but since then have gone on to dissuade members in the audience to pay attention to their one-of-a-kind rock/metal dirges that is like a shrieking train coming to a complete halt mere inches away from spectators at the last possible second. It’s with this abrupt, in your face cringe-factor that the opening act of the night pivoted off their message from across the stage and into the audience – a sound that was, at times, relentless and resembled a combustible force that will at any moment annihilate your previous misconceptions of the group.
Right off the bat, frontman Ryan Foxe, made it clear that he had no pretensions of that night. Launching straight into the set without so much as an introduction, it was clear that the crowd surrounding the stage was in for a surprise. After a mind-blowing intro, where Ryan self-deprecatingly said that Ghetto Blaster was warming up the stage for Pinback, his ability to maneuver with swift agility within the proxy of the stage from karate kicks to hawking jokes from the crowd when the band crossed a technical difficulty saved the Ghetto Blaster from being called anything but ordinary.
No one had really heard of the experimental 4-piece mega-group until that night. But the San Diego-based band, with their mesmerizing and vaudeville-ish vocals, drowning backbeat, and the rage that drips with absolute ease from the lead-singer’s auditor-like vocals, will forever alter people’s minds and incite them with a pulsating energy that was previously missing from their lives before. Shrieking everything into his mouthpiece, which he then proceeds to swing like a pendulum into the audience, making them mildly concerned for their, as well as everyone else’s well-being, Ryan’s schizophrenic showmanship and anecdotal lyrics made for a pretty unpredictable show.
The film being shown onto the screen behind the band meshed very well with the themes that Ryan was spewing out and kept right with the hypnotic pacing of the music. Absolute anarchy was being projected and voiced onstage. While on the screen exhibited violence, hunger, and ugliness, Ryan upped it a notch when he unexpectedly smashed a beer bottle onto his head. Then proceeding to finish the song, with a shard of glass still stuck to his forehead, he had unbeknownst to some in the crowd that night completed the freak show reference that was only on display before but now was fully embodied. Yet the damage was already done, and though the audience was definitely taken aback, they suddenly had a newfound respect for the guy.
The paranoia that Ghetto Blaster’s frontman unleashed into the crowd that night dissipated once Pinback hit the stage. The dynamic duo comprises of Armistead Burwell Smith (Zach), and Rob Crow, and their beautiful harmonies and interwoven melodies contrasted greatly with Ghetto Blaster’s harsh and bitter sound. Nonetheless, it was obvious that Pinback’s music, though mellower and more introspective, struck a chord within the musical landscape of each member of the audience that night. It is interesting to point out that though Pinback’s sound has a personalized touch to it that is meant for a more intimate setting – but because of Pinback’s huge following this makes ‘intimate’ impossible – their music translated very well live at the sold out show inside the Belly Up Tavern. Monday night exemplified that paradise is a state of mind and that music could be that possible conduit to reach to that state of being.
Throughout the rest of the night, Pinback, due to the insistence of the audience (someone near the stage had a bottle opener on him, and continued to open beer bottles one after the other for the band) continued to showcase their wide catalog of songs. The tracks each carried a melancholy essence to them, like a dream that was realized and then was lost. Perhaps it’s with this not-of-this-world stance that, for some of us, lead guitarist and vocalist, Rob Crow, seems to be searching for something, and he is utilizing this platform and the stage to find that missing piece. Though the audience, too, is avidly searching for that intersection in music and life, unlike Rob we have found it, and those who were present that night were rejoicing in its discovery.
It seemed like all the components worked very well in the set: from the coalescing of the music, the film being shown on the backdrop behind the band to the enigmatic presence of Rob and Zach, who did not speak one word to the audience that night, all inspired and moved those in the audience that Monday night. Live, dynamic, and badass – a Pinback show is not to be missed.
For more info on Pinback and Ghetto Blaster visit:
