![]() The point here is not the individual but the whole. There was also that trio of women in black-and-white face paint - another way to rep Detroit along with the Pistons jersey and Wolf Eyes T-shirt onstage - one of whom wore a disco-ball dress of sorts. (And I’m not sure it matters which one is Adam Vallely, which one is Dan Greene, et al.) Wolski’s fellow vocalists included an extremely tall long-haired barbarian who sometimes broke into some kind of tai chi dancing. The Armed go out of their way to confuse and obscure, so beyond Tony Wolski of Genghis Tron, I’m not fully clear on these people’s identities. Or maybe the Suicide Squad is a better comparison point. Lead vocal duties were traded and shared by an Avengers-esque committee of fearless freaks. It is enough of a thrill on a pure audio level that the Armed’s last few records - most recently last year’s Ultrapop - more than stand up on their own without the pageantry of the live show.īut damn, the live show elevates this band’s operation to a whole other echelon. Singing, screaming, and shout-along hooks coexist within battering-ram songs that pull from grindcore, industrial, D-beat, black metal, and more. Keyboards, bass, guitar, and laptops unite into walls of sound so loud that the guitar-hero finger tapping is usually swallowed up in noise. Machine-gun drum fills blur together with programmed blast beats. ![]() Musically the Armed hit you with umpteen subgenres at once. In terms of both audacious spectacle and sheer sonic force, it was one of the most incredible rock shows I’ve ever witnessed. The sound was so harsh, the vibe so jubilant. Imagine Broken Social Scene if they were three times heavier and five times weirder. The group descended upon the slightly smaller, more intimate Blue Stage like a bomb Saturday afternoon and didn’t stop exploding for 45 minutes. The Armed, an experimental hardcore collective from Detroit that functions like a multimedia art project but is very much a real band, put on what will almost certainly be the wildest, most entertaining set at this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival. ![]() ![]() Not long after the handsome devil with the mischievous grin raised his fist, the heavy bass drone gave way to a punishingly loud, feverishly intense monolithic onslaught. Then the blindfolded guy behind the keyboard. Then the women in Juggalo face paint clutching microphones. When the smoke cleared, the first thing I saw was the jacked men in tank tops brandishing guitars. ![]()
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