February 15, 2014

††† / Color Film at Santos Party House, 2/12/14

Three crosses for ††† at Santos Party House, Feb. 12, 2014.
If, in the late 90's and early 2000's, you dipped your music tastes somewhere in the dip of where punk and metal met, last Wednesday night may have seemed a bit strange. Two side-projects of veteran frontmen of the stage played a packed Santos Party House: Chino Moreno, of Deftones, played with his new group, ††† and opening was Color Film, fronted by Daryl Palumbo, Glassjaw's nutcase vocalist. Each act an extension of their primary group, but each standing strenuously on its own.
Color Film, Palumbo's second side-project since Head Automatica, shambled onto the stage. Their songs were quick, tight driving post-punk. Richard Penzone, previous collaborator with Palumbo, shredded his guitar. Palumbo scratched and clawed his way through the set just as he's always done. The hand not holding a microphone almost constantly pumped the air with a fist. He's a Grade A maniac on the stage, staring outlandishly, cartoonishly at the crowd, in a state of childlike awe. 
Palumbo and Color Film drummer during set.
The band was loose, clearly still kneading the songs into shape, but what they left behind was promising. Last year they released Until You Turn Blue EP, but the songs in their set, "52 Minds," "Bad Saint" and "Small Town" might turn up on their upcoming full-length debut, Living Arrangements
Three lighted crosses at the back of the stage were bathed in color as the full five-piece live version of ††† hit the stage. Moreno, as usual, lastly emerged from the dark to rapturous applause. The crowd always swoons for the guy in whatever form he's appearing in and it was no secret he was the guy everyone came to see. 
The group's debut self-titled album was released the night before, but already, every word Moreno sang had an added echo from the crowd. Clearly, he was overjoyed to see the big turn out. On stage everyone was in sync, often breaking into big grins. Moreno was flanked on either side by his co-conspirators on the album, Shaun Lopez, from Far, and Chuck Doom. 
Their foreboding grooves translated perfectly into the live room. The atmosphere was amped. The entrapment of "†elepa†hy" turned the place into a Gothic dance-hall. "Bi†ches Brew" was a hallowing out of the brain with swervy bass poking the frontal lobe, turning clockwise. The cool trip-hop of "Blk S†allion" made it to the live stage for the first time and the stutter bass stabs of "†his Is A †rick" slapped up against the wall.
Lopez stood to the side, jet-black hair combed over, fiddling between a keyboard set-up and playing chiseled psych guitar licks. Doom, who Moreno called Dr. Doom when an audience member asked who he was, played the bass like a wet dolphin, always dipping forward, looking like souped up King Of The Hill character.
††† abandoned the stage briefly, returning for a moody rendition of "Goodbye Horses" by Q Lazzarus and finishing with "†he Years." As they dispersed for the final time the glowing crosses left the audience mired in a trance.
Chino Moreno (center) performs with ††† last Wednesday at Santos Party House.

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