Mercury House

THREE BANDS, three sonic pleasure bombs unloaded upon the ears of the crowd at the Mercury House on Thursday (Sept. 7). The three bands consisting of the Texan-based Deep Cross and Psychic Killers and the local corporeal ambient ensemble known as The Organism played within the same stylistic quadrant but within that quadrant they were separated by many musical miles, as distant as quasars.

If The Organism is a body it is a celestial body, both nebulous and jagged, both stardust and cragged rock. They venture far out with the many probing instruments at hand, spacey synths like an old transistor radio, while the vocalist screams the faintest of screams, and the drums crash like asteroids. By the corner of a wall lay an endless mishmash of cords, from all the gear, takes up sizable space; a sufficient amount of gear in hand for the multi-part explorations.

After the freeform frenzy akin to the Sun Ra Arkestra, Psychic Killers bring it back down to earth with their self-called sleazewave brand of music–dark, seductive and awesome, and even that’s a bit reductive. Nine Inch Nails meets Love and Rockets meets with a tinge of metal and backed by bouncy trap 808’s. You can maybe call it Stilleto Goth Metal. Sensual aggressive danceable disdain. They’ve also been described as art rock darlings with post-punk grit.

Deep Cross rounded out the night with their synth metal wall of sound dirges. At times majestic and kind but then riffs and roars from hell would overtake you and drag you down into the fire and brimstone.