Noisy Columbus, Ohio trio Times New Viking brought their lo-fi, punk-inflected mess to the Great Scott Sunday night, supported by New Jersey's Titus Andronicus.
Titus took the stage first, diving into their set with what seemed to be a Boston shout-out full of Fenway references. The six-piece took off into selections from their new record "The Airing of Grievances," hitting most of them spot-on with 4 guitars' worth of noise (at times) to back them up. Nearly each member took their turn on vocal duties, singing/shouting backups on many numbers. The scruffily bearded, energetic frontman (apparently named Liam Betson) put down the guitar for songs at a time to shake out a tambourine rhythm and jump around a bit, culminating in a final assault upon his guitar which left it on the floor hissing feedback.
Times New Viking's set was not as visually appealing, though was a strange yet pleasant diversion from the filthily recorded tinny quality of any of their three records. The guitar/drums/keys three-piece blasted out a hoard of short songs, with vocal duties shared by drummer Adam Elliott and Beth Murphy on keys. Elliott's drum parts were quick and tight, bashing out as many cymbal crashes as possible while Murphy's organesque keyboard tones sunk deep within the mix. These parts of the act were expected, the anomaly being guitarist Jared Phillips, constantly staring with anger into the crowd, whose tones were not as grating as they appear on the band's records. The tones were instead very crisp and clean, like those of newer Sonic Youth's guitar work. This variation from the recorded work was the personal focus of the set, neither disappointing nor expected but a blissful, unanticipated gem of a performance, backed into the bowels of the bar where sounds like that thrive.
Ian Nelson, Collegian Staff
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