Concert Review: Nothing w/ Full Body 2, Cryogeyser, Violent Magic Orchestra at Warsaw, Brooklyn, NY

An 8:00 PM start time for a four band bill can leave a pretty bitter taste in your mouth. Getting out late at night to find a pitch black and sometimes frigid environment can feel quite offputting after the last few hours of music. However, the drowsiness accompanying the aftereffects of a full day of work feels like a complimentary side to the blissful yet harrowing qualities of a shoegaze-centric bill. When I walked out of the Warsaw venue after Nothing’s a short history of decay tour, it felt like wandering into the lucid-like setting the music created.

As a tower of Fender speakers ready to burst with sound loomed over the audience, the group took the stage among a shimmering blue light. After opening with an unreleased song, currently titled “July The Fourth,” Nothing centered their setlist around tracks from their latest record a short history of decay, including personal favorites like “cannibal world” and the title track. There were also multiple moments for the older fans of the group as well, with cuts like Guilty Of Everything’s “Hymn To The Pillory” and Tired Of Tomorrow’s “A.C.D. (Abcessive Compulsive Disorder)” playing alongside The Great Dismal’s furious “Famine Asylum.” The sound pummeled every nook and cranny of the venue, with distorted guitars shimmering alongside Warsaw’s massive screen. The ever-shifting background complemented Nothing’s nihilistic aesthetic with violent imagery of war and tailor-picked movie scenes demonstrating humans destroying an object out of rage (with Adam Kesher from Mulholland Drive destroying the mobsters car being a personal highlight.) Guitarist and frontman Nicky Palermo seemed to move at his own pace, frequently guiding his arms around aimlessly during slower parts of the tracks. During “Downward Years To Come,” Palermo went into the audience, played the entire bridge, and threw the guitar back to their guitar tech before emerging back onstage. 

One of the most striking things about this new shoegaze revival is the generational crossover between people whom experienced it in the 90s, those who experienced the indie record label-centric wave in the early 2010s, and this newfound popularity that's been exploding over the last 3 to 4 years. The crowd was full of people who could've been around for any of those eras, with 50-year-olds having just as great of an experience as the teenagers surrounding them. Nothing ties all of these eras together in a neat little bow without feeling like a cliche of their predecessors, and it’s great to see the fans of a whole genre of music come together to rally behind this champion of brash, washed out guitar music.

Nothing’s tour supporting their record a short history of decay may be finished, but fellow shoegaze fans can get the chance to catch a special set following Tired Of Tomorrow at select locations around the U.S. at Slide Away festival. You can purchase remaining tickets for the show here, as well as listen to Nothing’s music here.

NOTHING

Direct support on the a short history of decay tour was the Philadelphia based shoegaze band, Full Body 2. Turn off the heels of their new single “Turn So Slow,” the group was bathed with blue and green backlight as walls of sound slammed into the audience. The addition of electronic elements in backing instruments rounded out their sound from being purely noise, but that wouldn’t have kept watchers from having a good time. The quartet drew from their 2022 set of tracks, including favorites like “fifty heaven” and “ador//ation,” as well as songs from their EP infinity signature like “wonder limit.” It was an explosive set that served as a great indicator for the noisier sides of shoegaze and a great bridge between acts. You can check out Full Body 2’s work here.

FULL BODY 2

Rounding out the dreamer sounds of the bill was Los Angeles indie rock trio Cryogeyser. Touring in support of their latest self-titled record, the group took to the warm stage lights and immediately created a weightless contrast to the heaviness in the room. The group pulled songs from their self-titled record like “Stargirl” and “Blue Light,” while also harkening back to tracks on their first record Glitch, all of which felt right at home amid the calm. Throughout their thirty minute set, the group conveyed a sense of yearning throughout blissful guitar leads from frontwoman Shawn Maron, all while the delicate blue of the screen behind them gave the audience a chance to breathe between the chaos surrounding them. It was a beautiful cooldown, acting almost like a microcosm of the function of softer styles of music in live performance: just for a moment, you get to forget the world around you and feel the brightness. You can listen to Cryogeyser’s fantastic self-titled record here.

CRYOGEYSER

Bringing the noise to the maximum right out of the gate was Violent Magic Orchestra, a black metal noise punk group from Japan. To try and describe VMO's style is like trying to explain intricacies within a moment of sensory overload: you can get pretty close with hindsight, but you can never fully grasp the true emotional intensity of the moment. Their eclectic blend of dance punk, black metal, and industrial soundscapes, most of which was concocted at the same moment, was unlike anything I had ever seen before. The face-painted group was clearly excited to be in the room, as they were constantly smiling, moving around the stage, and jumping into the crowd. The group leaned further into the performance aspects of their set with the use of flashlights, adding an extra dimension to the already overblown music, with one memorable moment capturing a Panopticon-like experience. VMO’s vocalist putting flashlights right on the eyes of the spike-headed synthesizer player and moving his head around the audience, created a sense of unease amidst the blinding lights. It was moments like these that elevated the set from simply being a test of how extreme the music could get and instead created a full on art performance, and judging from the line at the merge table right after the set, it was clear the audience felt the same way. You can check out VMO’s art here.

VMO