Nacion De Humo / Save Bandit / Antiphony / Senza / Marrowstone @ Real Art Tacoma

by Hugh Schmidt

Alright so something y'all should know about me is that I have a real inability to effectively use public transportation. Something goes wrong every time: I get on the wrong bus, I miss the bus, the bus is late, etc. Due to all 3 of those things happening, I was late and only caught a few minutes of Nacion de Humo's set, a sound collage/noise artist. Everyone was sitting on the floor when I came in, and some had their eyes closed, immersed in the set. It was definitely not like anything I'd heard before; the only noise sets I've experienced back east have been variants of harsh noise so this was definitely a change. They layered some really pretty textures on top of each other, resulting in an atmospheric but dense sound. Save Bandit was next, a Seattle trio who play mathy and spastic emo reminiscent of bands like Snowing or Fox Wound. They were super fun to watch and are definitely really energetic performers. They ended their set with a Deathdealer cover which was super cool and reminded me of home.

Antiphony and Senza were up next, supporting a brand new split talked about elsewhere in this zine. Antiphony are a frantic post hardcore band from Northern California, with a sound that I don't hear a lot of bands running with that often. They sound kinda like early Fall of Troy or At The Drive In, but with more melodic sections than either of those bands. With shifting time signatures and dynamics, they're a band that keeps you on your toes live.

Eugene, Oregon's Senza is a chaotic, dissonant emoviolence band that operated at a breakneck speed. While they perform without vocal microphones, all three members of the group provide piercing high pitched screams in unison with each other that cut through the instrumentation making them audible. The drum and guitar interplay on songs like "Provare" made their set seem even more manic and fast paced, which they blazed through with mere seconds between songs. Their set ended with really powerful yet vulnerable screaming, as the instrumentation dropped out and the drumkit was knocked over onto the floor. They put on a great fucking live show.

Tacoma locals Marrowstone closed out the show with their brand of melodic emo/post hardcore in the vein of Citizen or early Title Fight. Both the screamed and clean vocals are pained and full of emotion, with the guitar sound alternating between spacey picked chords and chunky distortion. Their frontman has great stage presence, and despite ending their set early due to possible drummer injury, left really great vibes in their wake. Overall, it was a really tight show and I'm stoked to be more involved in what seems like and active emo scene in Tacoma/Seattle.