Corners was another great surprise on Monday night, they could just have been another of these punk-surf-guitar revival bands, but there was something more about them, they were spiky, they were biting the dust, with super dynamic stage moves. Every time I want to write about a new band embracing this garage-surf-rock-post-punk style, I am scratching my head out of despair, Corners could have been a bit like Cosmonauts, The Allah Las, the Tijuana Panthers to name just a few other local bands, but they were keeping a psych side and overall an aggressive to dark mood. I even got some Midnight Oil vibe for a song or two, and that was weird, I haven’t thought about the Australian band for years! Plus one of them switched to synth for several songs and these was New Order/Bauhaus’ morose tone meets some slick surf guitar, in a totally dark post-punk crash. Songs like ‘Buoy’, ‘My Baby’ and especially ‘Pressure’ were real riots live, and I even think they had a song called ‘Riot’… a band to follow without any doubt.
Then Mystic Braves took the stage a bit before midnight, and the crowd, which was really big for a Monday night, started an unexpected mosh pit (of girls) during one of their songs. The Mystic Braves’ music is not even close to punk, but whatever, people were showing their appreciation while having fun! The quintet effectively plays this awesome 60s-drenched surf-guitar music which sound like a trip to the south of the border revisited by the Doors. There is a strong spirit through these songs, meaning there definitively is a Mystic Braves sound, with a lot of hooks and infectious rhythms making the girls on the side of the stage dance throughout the long set. With their long hair (and facial hair), their semi-dandy look, they gave to the crowd a good taste of their upcoming album ‘Desert Island’ (as most of the songs on the setlist seemed to be new ones) with warm harmonies, wobbling organ, surf guitars and tambourine, and enough instrumental passages to give a magic cinematic effect to the music. Mystic Braves seem to reinvent a 60s psychedelia via some western adventure under the sun. It’s cool and light-headed, full of galloping guitars dueling with these nervous keys, and the result can bring you 40 years back… or can they? All these people weren’t even in their 30s. The band had to come for an encore and they will be there next week for their last Monday of their residency,… and after that? Who knows, they may blow up soon and become the darling of the festivals like any of these other bands playing the same night. When I go to these residencies, I often wonder if I am watching Coachella,… 5 years ahead.
More pictures of the show here.
