Live: Pterodactyl, the Fucking Ocean

When: 8/7/09
Where: Death By Audio

For no reason beyond the band's name, I've wanted to check out the Fucking Ocean for some time now. Of course, the night they share the stage with Pterodactyl at Death By Audio, only the city's best DIY venue, was a pretty good time to do that.

In truth, the Fucking Ocean didn't literally share the stage with Pterdactyl, setting up instead on the floor of the show. I don't know if that was to speed up the transition or if it's just how they roll, but unfortunatley, it caused pretty serious visibility issues that did detract from the show.

The Fucking Ocean consists of three multi-instrumentalists, namely Matt Swagler, John Nguyen, and Marcella Gries. In the course of their set, they went through most (but not all) of the permutations possible with three people and three instruments. I appreciated the fact that the band ordered their songs so that they would not have to change instruments between every song, reducing downtime and keeping the noise buidling.

At their best, Gries was on bass, playing massive, metalloid riffs at light speed, while Swagler's frantic drumming pushed the music to its limits. The guitar covered everything from punk to metal to noise-rock to post-rock, sometimes within a single phrase, and whole combination was puncuated by sharp, yelling vocals. Though both weighty and frenzied, the band managed to keep a melodic appeal and at times, a sense of groove. It's still not easy music, but it's not inaccessibly harsh or avant-garde.

The band is great, and the show's biggest problems had nothing to do with the band's music. The worst problems with the set were with the band's presentation. First of all, Swagler was wearing a skirt, which is something a lot radical, left-wing boys think is cool - that's great, but most rightfully outgrow that phase after age 16. In this instance, it was distracting and detracted from the excellent music.

Worse than that, the band - and especially Swagler - found it appropriate to tell us what their songs were "about" between numbers. Their songs are aparently about political issues. I detest like political music - that is, music that addresses politics in the abstract. All music is political, and should be, but when it comes in the form of rhetoric, and songs are "about" something that can be summarized in a short sentence, it feels preachy and even cowardly. As an art form, music should transcend simplistic axioms. And the sad thing is, if the band had just refrained from translating their songs for us ("this one is about..."), I would never have known and would have enjoyed the set much more.

Musically, the band is still amazing and I highly recommend you see them. I just also recommend trying to ignore anything they might say between songs. [MySpace]

When Pterodactyl took the stage, I had a pretty clear idea of what to expect, having heard the band several times in the last few months. Or so I thought.

But I should have known a band as good as Pterodactyl wouldn't let themselves get too comfortable. Now a trio (permanently?), the band has transformed their songs on every level. The band's punky, rhythmically complex, high-speed, intense, repetitive, manic sound endures, but this performance was by far the most aggressive and noisiest I've seen to date. They have begun abusing their guitars and amps (in a good way) to achieve a highly experimental, improvisational sound.

It's rare and ballsy to hear a band push themselves forward as artists when they could instead coast praise and hype. The set at DBA was nothing short of mindblowing for fans like me, who heard music we already loved set on fire with new intensity.

So far, the band has done well, though I hope they also know the limits of the direction they are moving in. Already, they are hovering near that edge of reinvention where those not familiar with the songs' original versions might end up lost, and where each track could lose its focus as noise obscures the hectic melodicism that makes Pterodactyl great. They aren't there yet - so far the changes have been positive. But they are at an edge that could be pivotal and I hope the band will not lose their focus. They have a number of shows coming up this fall, so I guess we'll find out then. [MySpace]