Spent my Saturday night this weekend heading over to Golden West Cafe in Hampden to catch Pittsburgh's Microwaves at a show they shared with An Albatross and AIDS Wolf. Even though I've been working with Microwaves for a while, having released their last full length Contagion Heuristic on Crucial Blast a few years back, this would actually be my first time seeing the band live; I'd been a big fan of the band previously just based on their albums and Eps, all of which kill. Microwaves opened the show a few minutes after we got to the club, and rampaged through about twenty minutes or so of heavy, assaultive skronk-blast. The band had scaled down around two years ago to the core duo of John Roman (drums/samples/vocals) and Dave Kuzy (guitar/fx/vocals) and I was really looking forward to seeing how the band would sound as a duo live; it was certainly heavy, with John triggering these massive blasts of sampled synth-bass through pads attached to his drum kit while he pounded away mercilessly as Dave strangled and throttled his guitar and emitted a brain-snarling swarm of mutant thrash riffs, acidic no-wave skronk and bizarre effects. I wish that I could have heard a longer set from the guys, but it was killer regardless. John gave me an update on a new split Lp that they are self-releasing with another Pittsburgh band called Brown Angel that John plays in, so keep an eye out for that showing up on the Crucial Blast new arrivals list sometime in the near future. And keep an eye out for when Microwaves are playing anywhere near you. They deliver a primo dose of robotic skullscrape.
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