I like theater and drama, I don’t think live music should necessarily be this kind of spectacle but when an act like Prayers comes around, I enjoy it greatly. The opening band of the night at the Echoplex was the San Diego-based duo and their theatrical set was such a surprise!
They may have invented a new genre, self-described as killwave/Cholo goth, Prayers find their territory where the new-wave/goth scene meets hip hop culture and it totally works! ‘This song goes to the motherfuckers that imitate us’ declared frontman Rafael Reyes… he was saying this with a menacing tone and enough swagger to make Kanye West die of jealousy, and it was certainly funny.
There were some goth elements, generated by industrial electronics beats but they certainly weren’t NIN nor Bauhaus; there was an obvious gangster rap esthetic (appropriately, they have a song called ‘Goth Gang’) as well as a megalomania that comes with the game but it wasn’t rap; it was a ready-to-bleed, ready-to-kill spectacle, it was surprising and fascinating. Imagine three guys front row, one (Tijuana native Dave Parley) wearing a woolen black beanie, with dark long hair and full beard, manipulating a synth/drum-machine and making all the beats, another one in central position, wearing a black balaclava, proud of his muscular naked torso, holding two large swords and standing totally immobile the whole time, menacing like a guardian of some antic temple, and a third one (Reyes), getting all the attention, half-shouting, half-rapping the lyrics about angst, violence, alienation, anger and redemption, over a throbbing synth and some electronic drumming.
He was also entertaining the crowd with some deadpan macabre humor between the songs: ‘It’s fight or fuck, and judging by the size of the crowd, we may be doing both tonight!’ ….’ We are all gonna die, but some of you are gonna get killed!’ Much more effective and direct than any West’s 20-minute rants, if you want my opinion. His torso was covered by tattoos, graffiti style, his head was shaved, he kind of looked like a Mexican Tupac, holding a knife, hurting and screaming in repeat, ‘do you know who I am’ ….. Of course, Prayers’ act is a live act, it takes its dimension when you see them on stage, I am not sure the sole audio version is as effective as their theatrical representation, but there also were some very danceable electronic beats, swirls of distorted synth that people clearly noticed. For myself, I was too concentrated on the intensity and the existentialist dimension of the performance.
This kind of exaggerated drama, usually a turn off for me, got me intrigued and I wanted to know more: they have a song entitled ‘From Dog to God’ a pulsating dark and danceable number over which Reyes shout ‘I am alone in this world, this fucking world’, which sounded completely authentic: Reyes is actually an ex-gang member who turned his life around and was saved by his art (writing, music and painting). The band Prayers was formed in 2013 and they already are about to release a second album this year. After their set, I was left with all these contrasting images of aggression, death threats, gang violence, street life but also redemption, breaking stereotypes and the barriers between genres. ‘We are the only thing that fucking matters!’ he shouted at one point, while he was losing his voice, and people were ready to believe him at this point.
