Sweat swung like beads on spinning ceiling fans as The Downbeats opened at The Parish last Thursday night for an audience full of young guns who were likely sliding shut the door to their moms’ minivans not an hour ago. When informed they had 8 minutes left in a time-check, The Downbeats lead vocals sprayed in perfect punk rock form over tuning guitars, “Well then, we got about 8 more songs.” Moments later, he disrupted a song to proclaim he didn’t feel quite right, and with foxly movement as stylized as synchronized swimmers, all but the drummer jumped off the stage, instruments and microphones with them, to play the rest of the set among the audience.
Reverberating second act Sip Sip’s 14-man-band resembled Danielson in energy and costuming. Dynamic and entertaining, Sip Sip juggled back and forth between song and rap, accompanied by a whirlpooling horns section and a synthesizer, on top of standard rock instrumentation. At moments, they drew up an irrefutable comparison to a double-headed giant of Jay-Z and Michael McDonald with the brassy hips of Chromeo. Sip Sip, fronted by members of Austin’s lushly orchestrated Mother Falcon, was very much the lungs of the evening.
Headliners Legs Against Arms beamed pleasant rock, which was a complementing decipherable pop to the grating, and sometimes trying, sound of the third act, The Act Rights. The Act Rights jammed with fortitude, but their buzzing garage sound and pop blister vocals spent the entire set walking a tightrope of take-it-or-leave-it. Legs Against Arms rolled along with radio-ready rock ’n stroll.
–Lauren Hardy (photo by Natalya Alexandrovna)