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Cymbals Eat Guitars may be one of those bands you just "don't get" until you see them live. Like so many fuzz-infected groups coming out of New York, it's often hard to tell who's another Sonic Youth-meets-Dinosaur Jr. knock off and who's got a unique voice based off of a few sonically-impaired tracks posted on MySpace. It's a challenge so many musicians struggle with today, and with the renaissance of feedback-encased garage rock the stakes are especially high. For many, the case of Cymbals Eat Guitars is still on "to be determined" status, but for those who caught the band members at Great Scott last night saw them deliver.
Though a relatively new group, the Staten Island quartet handled the stage and role as performers and entertainers with a sly grace and style, wisely kicking off with the cacophonous, six-minute ditty "And The Hazy Sea." Complete with sweeping bursts of guitar, shout-to-the-ceiling vocals, and fine guitar noodling, "And The Hazy Sea" was the perfect choice to open a set of songs steeped in drony gutter punk and almost prog-like soundscapes.
The group continued to storm through most of the songs of their debut album, Why There Are Mountains, taking their spare time to toss in a couple of new tracks to the delight of a handful of enraptured fans who seemed to claw at the air whenever a song they loved started up—which was what happened at the beginning of every new song. Despite the band's brief existence, it's easy to see how Cymbals Eat Guitars have been able to win over people a handful at a time.
Though the sheer volume of the music may turn people off, the band's forays into jazzy downbeats, vast paintings of instrumental slowcore reverb, and frontman Joseph D'Agostino's youthful charm compose a band that tends to draw people into the emotional components of music that many bands can't seem to crack. Apparently Cymbals Eat Guitars used to cover Weezer pretty often, and its effect continues to reverberate in the group, especially in D'Agostino. With an affable vocal style that's reminiscent of Cap'n Jazz/Joan of Arc frontman Tim Kinsella and The Promise Ring/Maritime frontman Davey Von Bohlen, D'Agostino's singing performance breathed a kind of down-to-earth normality that found consummate experts in many a mid-90s emo act (excluding Weezer). D'Agostino seemed to truly believe every word that fell out of his mouth, making those slightly off-key warblings all the more endearing.
Cymbals Eat Guitars' set ended with a gigantic burst of volume as D'Agostino opened his mouth to let a volcano of noise erupt and promptly strangled his guitar fret endlessly, focused on making a dense amount of noise in the dwindling set time. Though the band soon left the stage, Bostonist's ears continued to ring and his head continued to sing the night's songs. Some groups may specialize in noise, but Cymbals Eat Guitars specialize in well-crafted tunes; that's all you really need to make some noise.
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