REVIEW: Flasher 9/7/22
On Tuesday, I went to see Flasher at the Echo. No ticket, no promotion, just a lovely birthday gift from my lovely girlfriend and KXSC alumna, Ariella a.k.a. DJ Pumpkin. I read about Flasher's newest album, Love is Yours, and after it came out in June I realized that they had been one of those classic 'Oh I know that band' bands for me, but I had never delved in. I found their new album on Post-Trash, a digital music journal, so check out that website if you haven’t yet, they have some gems!
We got inside at the end of the first opening set, Cupid&Psyche. Judging from how Flasher sound, Cupid&Psyche made sense as an opener. They had plucky, dry guitars run through a ton of delay and reverb; crooned lyrics; and they never looked at the crowd. God, I love indie rock. I wasn’t a massive fan of the lead singer’s voice, but the lead guitarist’s parts really impressed me. They added a lot of atmosphere in a really cool way and didn’t just hit random notes and then let it decay on the delay pedal. The parts were really well written, and they ended the set with a huge fade-out and wall of sound thing that was really well done. Good opener, check em out.
The second opener, Katie Alice Greer, was not something we were prepared for. I was talking to Ariella when the DJ rushed past us and went right on stage and started mixing incredibly harsh noise. Not grating Merzbow noise, but thick NIN noise with very little space to rest. Then Katie Alice Greer took the stage, dressed in a long pastel ball gown, and began singing. All I can say is that, in most of her songs, I kept wondering what she was listening for as the performer. She didn’t ask for any effect on her mic, so the mixture of incredibly dry, seemingly classically-trained, Disney-sounding vocals over grinding and rumbling noise was interesting. I don’t think it was for me; it just didn’t grab me, but check her out.
Then Flasher took the stage and immediately hit their stride. Opening with “I Saw You,” it was really cool to see how they used the bass pitched up to do lead lines, how they balanced vocals, etc. I really appreciated how tight their songs felt without sounding stiff. Sometimes seeing bands that sound so much like their recordings can feel odd and almost ingenuine (this has honestly happened to me seeing Alvvays), but Flasher still felt like four people playing music, which I really appreciated. Something that I enjoy the most when I see bands are the moments where the song they are playing starts to sound like something that is hanging between everyone on stage rather than just people playing their parts. If a band does it right, it starts to feel like the big rainbow parachute you would run underneath in elementary school. Wee! Guitar, bass, drums, tambourine, and one person on a Roland sampler of some sort can get formulaic, but making things feel like they’re in the balance requires both good songs and a good performance, which Flasher gave and more. I liked their new stuff more than their older, more surf-rocky material, which started to feel like people just hammering chords in their own little bubbles.
The set reminded me a little bit of a The Spirit of the Beehive set, as everyone worked their parts and held up their ends, feeling their parts while staring at their feet, and yet believing in the song to the end. 8/10 set, really good band, and a good night. They hit the road for the month tomorrow, so go see them if you can, you won’t regret it.
Sincerely yours,
DJ Sqouija