Here’s the Riot is a grungey alt-rock act from Los Angeles with an emotionally-drenched, acerbic attitude. Although presented as a trio, the band is, at its core, the pseudonym for Houston born musician Paris Tompkins. Influenced by the likes of Nirvana and Guns N Roses, there is a no-nonsense quality to the band’s music, and there are no holds barred on their latest EP, Tonight We’re Alive. Direct and immediate, Tompkins’ lyrics trade subtlety for a more guttural stomach-punch approach and the five songs generally retain and unrelenting pace over the course of the EP’s duration.
None of the songs are especially deep, but perhaps that’s the intention. “Love Makes Me Crazy” is self-explanatory, and doesn’t go much farther than the title hints at, but it is instantly catchy above all else. The same goes for the obviously explicit “TTMFU,” and the relatively more ballad-like “Place for Us.” There’s nothing radically different or particularly new about the band’s cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes,” but it does manage the job of taking it into anthemic territory in which people incorrectly assume the song already sits. Tonight We’re Alive isn’t music one can analyze endlessly, which is exactly why this record sits firmly in the long tradition of corporeal rock and roll.
