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Listings are
in the opposite order of appearance: headliner is listed at the top,
next is the support band(s),
and the last band listed is the opener.
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Saturday July 26
2025 8:00PM doors -- music at 8:30PM ••• ALL AGES $15 in advance / $20 at the door Lifeguard instagram.com/lifeguard_band alternative punk indie noise rock Autobahn instagram.com/autobahn212 noise, post-punk Famous Mammals famousmammals.bandcamp.com art rock post-punk Lifeguard -from Chicago, IL -Ripped and Torn, the debut album by Chicago three-piece Lifeguard, may or may not take its title from the legendary Scottish punk fanzine of the same name. Or perhaps it references the torn t-shirts that rock writer Lester Bangs claimed the late Pere Ubu founder Peter Laughner died for “in the battle fires of his ripped emotions.” Or maybe it points to the trio’s ferociously destabilising take on melodic post-punk and high velocity hardcore, signposting their debt to the kind of year zero aesthetics that would reignite wild improvisational songforms with muzzy garage Messthetics in a way rarely extrapolated this side of Dredd Foole & The Din. Either way, Lifeguard stake their music on the kind of absolute sincerity of the first wave of garage bands, garage bands that took rock at its word, while simultaneously cutting it up with parallel traditions of freak. The half-chanted, half-sung vocals are hypnotic. Songs aren’t so much explicated as they are exorcised, as though the melodies are plucked straight from the air through the repeat-semaphoring of Asher Case on bass, the machine gun percussion that Isaac Lowenstien plays almost like a lead instrument, and that flame-thrower guitar that Kai Slater sprays all over the ever-circling rhythm section. Indeed, the trio play around an implied centre of gravity with all of the brain-razzing appeal of classic minimalism, taking three-minute hooks into the zone of eternal music by jamming in – and out – of time. And then there are the more experimental pieces – “Music for Three Drums” (which surely references Steve Reich’s Music For 18 Musicians), “Charlie’s Vox” – that reveal the breadth of Lifeguard’s vision, incorporating a kind of collaged DIY music that fully embraces the bastardised avant garde of margin walkers like The Dead C, Chrome, and Swell Maps. But alla this would be mere hubris without the quality of the songs. The title track “Ripped & Torn” suggests yet another take on the title, which is the evisceration of the heart. Here we have a beautifully brokedown garage ballad, with the band coming together to lay emotional waste to a song sung like a transmission from a lonely ghost. “Like You’ll Lose” goes even deeper into combining dreamy automatic vocals with steely fuzz on top of a massive dub/dirge hybrid. “It Will Get Worse” is pure unarmoured pop-punk crush while “Under Your Reach” almost channels the UK DIY of The Television Personalities circa “Part Time Punks” but with a militant interrogation of sonics that would align them more with This Heat. Plus the production, by Randy Randall of No Age, is moody as fuck. Are they really singing “words like tonality come to me” on “T.L.A.”?! If so, it would suggest that Lifeguard are one of those rare groups who can sing about singing, who can play about playing, and who, despite the amount of references I’m inspired to throw around due to the voracity of their approach, are capable of making a music that points to nothing outside of the interaction of the player’s themselves. And sure, there’s a naivety to even believing you could possibly do that. But perhaps that’s what I have been chasing across this entire piece, the quality of openness that Lifeguard bring to their music. You can tell these three have been playing together since junior high/high school: the music feels youthful, unburdened, true to itself, even as it eats up comparisons. Lifeguard play underground rock like it might just be as serious as your life, but with enough playful ardour to convince you that youth is a quality of music, and not just of age. With a sound that is fully caught up in the battle fires of their own ripped emotions, Lifeguard make me wanna believe, all over again. Autobahn -from New York City, NY -Autobahn, from New York City, vast-american skies of noise, Can for the insurgent age, bubblegum Glen Branca, three-pieces in orchestra, together, bodies in drone, for glowing return of strings, snare, cymbals-in total light, this summer supporting Life-guard. Findlay Fullarton (guitar/electronics), Louisa Tantillo (cello/bass), Liam Barton (drums). Famous Mammals -from Oakland, CA -"If the names Amber Sermeno, Andy Jordan & Stanley Martinez sound familiar, it's because they're in practically every band that matters from the SF/Bay area, A short list reads; Non Plus Temps, Children Maybe Later, Naked Roommate & not the least of which is Famous Mammals. Following a self-released cassette, 'Instant Pop Expressionism Now!' is their 1st full length vinyl effort & man is it a doozy. On their debut tape the seeds were sown for what has blossomed on this LP as a fully pollinated orchard of hybridized post punk that seemingly harkens back to the halcyon days when Rough Trade called 202 Kensington Park Road home. "Instant Pop Expressionism Now!" is an ultramodern polyglot of smatterings that at once sound familiar, but you can't quite place it. Swell Maps? Happy Refugees? Monochrome Set? Maybe. Kinda. It's in the stitching, but the design & thrust is all Famous Mammals. And while we're not prone to hubris, we are confident that 'Instant Pop Expressionism Now!' will be the hit lp of the summer everywhere from Sooty's Disco Party to Gus' Hotdog Hootenanny. If you know, you know, It's not too late to hop on board. The more the merrier." - @tornlight, IG |
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