Culminating an impossibly stellar lineup of garage punk up-and-comers Night Birds, White Lung, and METZ, is frequent buzzing Dutch four-piece Iceage tonight at Philadelphia's First Unitarian Church. The outstanding youth of the group is still well known, despite crossing over on the U.S. scene roughly two years ago. Still, the power and brevity of the band's most recent LP You're Nothing on a jump to Matador makes Iceage leading the other bands almost unquestionable.
The Copenhagen band, led by workaholic at-heart Elias Bender Rønnenfelt (who's still churning out stuff as part of Marching Church and Vår), feeds on torrid momentum on You're Nothing, taking the exhausted jubilant nature of New Brigade without relinquishing the - as Anthony Fantano says it best - "chaotic apathy." The sounded is refined - something fairly improbable for any version of punk - but patterns and melodies don't just seem thrown in from varying minds of the band, rather, sticking as a whole scheme.
Whether or not that tooling of the technique means anything for the band's live persona should hold high, given the years of touring and the vigorous attitude the band has towards moving forward. It has to, regardless, because a lineup featuring White Lung and METZ will have plenty craving for a righteous finale.
Tickets for the show are still available, with doors opening at 7 p.m. and beginning at 7:30.
