Leave it to the Los Angeles art-punk duo NO AGE to not only play a terrific set at a filled-to-capacity bar/Ethiopian restaurant, but to make the best of an uncertain situation. They were initially scheduled to open for LIARS on the other side of town at the First Unitarian Church, but as you can read here”, singer ANGUS ANDREW was too sick to play and thus they had to cancel their show. It should also be noted that this was the second consecutive occasion that Liars have had to cancel a Philadelphia show, the previous occasion being a few years back when they were scheduled to play the TLA but had to cancel due to poor ticket sales. To be fair, they did open for INTERPOL here back in April, though.
Fortunately, though, with the help of Badmaster Records head honcho JOHN EMORY, who occasionally books shows at this venue, R5 Productions was able to move the show and to have it be a situation where only No Age played. This was OK with me since as it turns out, the venue is only a few blocks from my apartment and I knew it would end early, which I’m happy about given that it’s a Sunday night. Plus, though I wanted to see both bands, I wanted to see No Age more, their enticing blend of ultra lo-fi garage punk and arty noise-pop, as evidenced on last year’s 7” compilation Weirdo Rippers, growing on me quite a bit in the last year. Plus, I missed them the last time they played here back in October because BILLY BRAGG played across the river in Collingswood the same night.
So after about an hour wait, No Age finally took the stage. Although we were unable to see anything due to the low stage and the filled to capacity attendance even though we had seats near the bar area, the band sounded great. They played a bunch of stuff from Weirdo Rippers as well as a few songs they identified as new (which will hopefully be on their new album, which will be out on Sub Pop soon). The highlights were inevitably the more upbeat numbers like “Boy Void” and “My Life’s Alright Without You” and I enjoyed the juxtaposition between the speed and precision of drummer DEAN SPUNT (who also sings most of their songs) and the often times chaotic guitar playing of the quieter and awesomely named RANDY RANDALL, who went into the audience on more than one occasion. Spunt also went into the audience at one point on a rare song that where he sang only accompanied by Randall’s guitar.
All in all, I think the band sounds better live than they do on record. Although I like their previous recordings, I hope that they can improve with their first full-length and transfer more of that energy into their recorded work as well.
