Purling Hiss
Subject to band availability and any number of other chaotic variables, bills for smaller club dates are usually something of a mixed bag, typically including at least one group that’s sort of superfluous or confusing. Whether some new local band that hasn’t quite gotten their act together or a sub-par touring outfit that merely happened to be passing through town at the same time, the occasional stinker is just a fact of life, but every so often, like Friday night, the proverbial stars align to create a lineup that’s pretty much flawless.
Getting things underway was Platinum Boys, a relatively new local band who bring together good-time classic rock, power pop hooks and scuzzy punk attitude, the result being somewhat in the mold of Nashville’s hard-partying Natural Child, only much more Midwestern. As with that band, Platinum Boys’ music (full of guitar solos and fist-pumping rhythms) and lyrics (mostly covering drinking, girls and cruising down that symbolic American highway) are both the stuff of rock ’n’ roll cliché, but are delivered with such genuine feeling that it’s convincing and, more importantly, fun.
Next up was another Milwaukee band, Dogs in Ecstasy, whose set, in characteristically offbeat fashion, didn’t include either of the cuts off their recently released I Google Myself/I’m a Man single, which has been turning a lot of heads as of late. Instead, it was split between callbacks to their debut EP Dat Cruel God and even fresher, as yet unreleased songs, new editions to an already impressive inventory of catchy neo-grunge numbers that continue to build upon their signature brand of oblique humor and Internet-era anxiety.
Playing third you had Appleton-based outfit Technicolor Teeth, a buzzed-about band whose profile has only continued to rise in 2014, helped along by an extensive bout of touring that included appearances at SXSW. Live, they certainly leave a lasting impression, letting loose a squall of moody, feedback-laced shoegaze and dazed psychedelia, all at bone-rattling volume, but while the noisy, heavily treated guitars and pounding drums may be what initially captures the crowd’s attention, it’s the solid pop fundamentals submerged deep beneath that darkly ominous surface which keeps them hanging around.
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Lastly there were headliners Purling Hiss, hailing from Philadelphia. Started as a solo project by guitarist Mike Polizze, the band, in its current incarnation as a hard-hitting power trio, is on a bit of a roll, still fresh off the success of their well-received Drag City debut Water on Mars, while anticipating the release of a rarities collection in April, and were in fine form throughout a performance that spun fuzzy melodies out into extended, entrancingly riff-heavy jams, providing the perfect coda to a wholly enjoyable night of new rock ’n’ roll.
