Peanut Butter Snack Sticks

I am both hyper-aware and completely oblivious to my surroundings when I’m at a concert. I’m hyper-aware of the people around me and any changes at the venues where I spend a lot of time, but I also won’t notice a good friend walking by. It’s a weird thing, and I apologize to everyone that I may have blindly walked by on Sunday night at the packed Zhora Darling show, but I was hyper-fixated on a new “sign” hanging near the soundboard. “No crowdsurfing.” It was simply printed on a single white sheet of paper. Nothing extravagant, nothing big; you were probably at the show and didn’t even see it. But I fixated on it. What had I gotten into? Zhora Darling has become my comfy home away from home, and frankly, most of the shows I go to at this fantastic local venue are underattended, to say the least, so to see this sign proclaiming “No crowdsurfing” and to smell the familiar musk of an absolutely packed show put me a bit out of my element. At the same time, it had me super excited for the two-band show.

The stage was set up in an odd way for the opening act, Lip Critic. I couldn’t tell if I was about to get treated to a fully electronic set based on the folding table that was covered in geeky-looking electronic equipment or if it would be a more standard band set-up with just one person fiddling around with all of the buttons and pads sitting on this table. I also couldn’t figure out if the two drum sets set up on the intimate stage were both going to be used at the same time or if it was more that they were both set up for a smooth transition between the two. My boyfriend and I took bets on what was about to happen. I said it would be a three-piece- guitar, electronic table, drummer. He said four pieces- guitar, two drums, and electronics. We were both wrong.

Lip Critic took the stage with two drummers and two members standing around this table full of gadgets and gizmos. My wonder didn’t last long as the four-piece group leaped into their set and, in no time, plunged me into the world of Lip Critic. Sonically, this group is chaotic, and that’s about the only way I can describe it. It was Death Grips but with more of an EDM and experimental noise influence rather than metal. However, don’t get it twisted; there were definitely elements of metal woven into their set. I couldn’t peg their sound down to just one thing, but that was the magic of this group. There was something unique, something creative, something fresh, and slightly bipolar about their sounds. On top of all of that was their performance. Although two members were stuck behind the tandem drum kits and the other two were pretty chained to that folding table, Lip Critic gave the packed audience sheer energy, which definitely set the stage for what was to come from the headlining act.

I had never heard of Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol prior to this show but with a band name like that, how was I going to resist this show? Much like I had been guessing at the configuration of Lip Critic based on the stage set-up, I spent most of my week contemplating what I thought the sound of Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol would be. Based on the quirky band name, my head kept going to Southern rock for some reason. I’m not sure why, as my boyfriend quickly pointed out that there was nothing “southern” in their band name, but that’s where I was. Then, upon seeing a picture of the trio, my head went to thrash metal. Long story short, I thought I would get a southern thrash metal band with a sense of humor. Although there were elements of all of those things thrown into their set, I was way off.

The sound of Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol is epic. Full stop. It’s loud, and it’s dark. It’s sludgy and doomy. It’s the kind of sound that starts a vibration in your head, radiates all the way down to your toes, and completely takes you over. It may not have been what I was expecting, but it definitely knocked me on my butt almost instantly. The songs that this trio played were short, but every song came across as a cohesive and well-thought-out track. That’s one of the biggest things that struck me about this band. Although they definitely have a sound, their short songs meant that if you didn’t like something in particular, all you had to do was wait a minute or two, and they would kick into something slightly different.

I was at this show without knowing anything about it, but I was clearly alone in that camp. Throughout Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol’s set, the audience screamed and pushed along to every beat. It was a spectacular scene to see, especially in a venue that can, at times, feel a bit sleepy (and I don’t mean that in a bad way– again, this is one of my favorite places to go these days). There was something about walking into the space after going to the bathroom and getting hit with the feeling and smell of sweaty and hot musk that was just the cherry on top for me when it came to Sunday night. I know that sounds less than delightful, but it’s a feeling and smell that will always take me back to my teenage years spent at packed clubs like House of Bricks and Vaudeville Mews in Des Moines, Iowa, and getting that same feeling at what has become my new home away from home at a show I knew nothing about before showing up made Sunday night at Zhora Darling a perfect way to kick off my week.