Live: Unsane/400 Blows/Mouth of the Architect

THE PROLETARIAT — 6/16/2007: I got to the show late, and only caught 400 Blows and Unsane. The crowd was strong and noisy, surprising considering all the bands were from out of town. 400 Blows is a cool 3-piece, a pint-sized drummer, charismatic lead singer, and guitarist running two Marshall half-stacks plus a bass amplifier, allowing the trio to sound much bigger than their number might suggest.

Unfortunately, no one could hear the vocals, a recurring problem that came to a head during Unsane’s sound check. Unsane had no monitors for either the drummer or one of the singers, asked repeatedly for it to be fixed (nicely, I thought, for New Yorkers), but were cursed at by the soundman (or some other Proletariat employee). Look, it’s hard enough to get national acts to come to our city; we don’t need to be pissing them off by being confrontational when they have the audacity to think that the floor monitors will work when they get out of the van. A bad vibe all around.

Luckily, Unsane channeled Spinal Tap to rise above and floor everyone with a kick-ass show. Guitarist Chris Spencer and bassist Dave Curran shared vocal duties and traded crushing riffs, while drummer Vinny Signorelli pretty much played non-stop, filling empty space between songs with intricate drum beats and ear candy. Overall, a great Saturday night show, the notoriously bad Proletariat sound system not withstanding. END