I drove to the Fillmore the same way I always drive to the Fillmore, listening to the bands about to play to get myself into the right mood. After shuffling through the two main bands (I had no idea who Janedriver was, sorry), I had a few songs floating through my head: Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Ringo Deathstarr. However, one song popped into my head and wouldn’t go away. One song was created by the triangulation of everything i listened to in the 22 minute drive to the venue: Stars by Hum. That’s what the amalgamation of all these sounds turned into in my brain. “I bet someone plays Stars by the end of the night”.
It didn’t take long. Janedriver, a local mid-atlantic, self-proclaimed “redneck shoegaze” band from one state north that I had never heard of, who was reuniting tonight after a hiatus I was unaware of, announced it was their next song; right at the end of their set. After nearly half a dozen songs, they had the balls to take this masterpiece of a song on. Was it perfect? Nope. But they gave it everything they had and I salute you, brothers.
Next up came Nothing. A 45 minute tidal wave; a cacophonic sonic assault from a band whose family tree crossed West Virginia style with the headliners. What was most impressive was the way they ended it. Frontman Nicky crowd surfed on his knees,giving up his guitar and throwing his hands around like a maestro on meth to let his bandmates know how slow to take the last moments of their show. The set was beautiful but this image of ad-libbing the final notes of the last song and dragging them out over a few minutes was some kind of psychic connection I had never seen before, but not surprising since the lead guitarist had his eyes closed half the set. Impressive,
Then came the main act. Whirr. The modern day Slowdive. The entire set was static except for lead guitarist Nick Bassett’s hair. But they didn’t need to jump around or do all the other things bands usually do to get the crown moving. So much of their punch comes from their three-guitar attack. God bless the Fillmore Silver Spring. That venue just can’t handle any more than two. I’ve seen Ministry and Minus the Bear at this place. Something about the Fillmore. It’s a great spot. Very efficient and convenient. But the second you break that third non-bass guitar out, the speakers go nuts and you’re drowning in static…. It wasn’t a problem tonight, though. That’s the beauty of shoegaze. You embrace the distortion. The chaos of the feedback, reverb, and all the other problems with a small venue with too much sound worked out perfectly. The crowd embraced it too. I’ve never seen crowd surfing at anything other than punk or industrial show here, let alone… (checks notes) … FUCKING SHOEGAZE, but of all the shows I’ve seen here, it was by far the loudest and some people, I guess, figured…what the hell. Let’s make a sweaty shoegaze salad.
Whirr
Nothing
Janedriver
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