Friday night, Death By Audio proved to be the place to be. I went there fully aware that Tropic of Nelson was going to blow the doors down. The quartet features Christoph and Anton Hochheim of 8-bit shoegazers Depreciation Guild—who have recently begun getting their much deserved attention. But this is no shoegaze band, Tropic of Nelson is a pure frenzy of rock and roll not reminiscent of greats The Jesus Lizard and Drive Like Jehu. Maybe this isn’t the cool sound of the moment, but they’re good enough where they might make it that way, and they’ll surely knock you on your asses. All those people on the Fucked Up  bandwagon should definitely check them out.

The band has recently recorded an EP, and RCRD LBL has some nice words to say about them, and some new tracks available for download.

Following Tropic of Nelson was the big surprise. After a long long week, I was tired and ready to call it a night, but I stuck around to see if the next band Grandchildren were any good, and I was immediately rewarded for giving them a chance. The Philly band sounded great despite the terrible sound of Death By Audio. Over a backing tracks that reminded me of Fuck Buttons, they played an energetic mix of electronic, rock, shoegaze. I always felt like the post-apocalyptic sounds of Fuck Buttons were a solid foundation that needed something else, and Grandchildren seemed to be adding that necessary something else.

What happened next was the most interesting moment of the night. Finishing their set as Grandchildren, the band restructured themselves, switched instruments and maybe a member or 2 and then played another set. This time they played as Rad Racket, and though there were similarities in sound, they were definitely distinctly different bands, with Rad Racket often having a more straightforward rock sound highlighted by Roman Salcic’s melodic vocals—especially on “Morning Trolley.”

Tropic of Nelson, Grandchildren, and Rad Racket are all bands I highly recommend checking out.