Last night Lord Youth, Cut Worms and Mild High Club played a sold out show at Baby’s All Right. I arrived at the venue on time (read: early) to kids outside trying to score tickets. Inside the venue the crowd was a little thin as Lord Youth began their set. Lord Youth’s sound is best described by feeling, and it made me feel like we’ve all been unknowingly harboring this deep reverberating pain in our chests. It’s hard to tell if the music itself was really all that dark and glum or if it’s just the power and largess of Micah’s voice and its ability to carry and punctuate space. The set was kept light and fun through Micah’s engagement with the hecklers and the rest of the crowd.
Next up was Cut Worms who are the least googlable band to have ever existed. While Cut Worms is technically just Max Clarke, he started his set with a full backing band. They had this 1950’s arcade-dwellers, Huckleberry Finn, boyish charm aesthetic going for them that was amplified when they began their set. The set sounded like roller rink rock, and the set was completely transformative thanks in large part to Max Clarke’s ability to project his voice into sounding like an old slightly warped and worn vinyl. Max finished the set alone doing a couple of acoustic songs.
In anticipation of Mild High Club things got crowded pretty quickly. Shortly after Cut Worms left the stage Alex Brettin and co showed up on stage sporting matching mustaches and began their set. There is a stark difference between digital and analog music — digital always sounds flat while analog music jumps out and creates hills, dips and texture. This is only really relevant because it helps describe MHC’s performance. On their studio albums they’ve created a sonic world that is ethereal and sheepishly dreamy but vibrant, like stepping into a kaleidoscope on the beach. Their performance maintained the etherealness but had more dimension and energy than their studio sound.
