Last Wednesday there was a house show featuring a lot of talent from around the country. It was a super early show and, unfortunately, I was only able to catch the second half of it.

I arrived in the middle Tomboy‘s set, unable to see them around the basement set-up, but totally welcomed by the shrieking and fierce punk blasting through the house for the final few numbers.

I don’t feel like I can give them a review, or not anything super genuine, based on my timing, but I did want to direct you to check them out. Something I usually don’t do but will now, is tell you to check them out at Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plain on 9/16. They had the place going bananas and everyone was super into it, which speaks more about them than I will.

Olympia, WA’s Hot Tears (the solo project of Molly Fischer) sat down in front of a kick drum with an electric guitar and pedalboard. There were a lot of adjustments and she seemed a bit bashful before the music started. But when it did, it was completely natural and the sound was fantastic and full, given the DIY situation.

The songs often started with quick back-and-forth strumming on the delayed guitar, but it held a very bassy sound so it didn’t feel lacking. The vocals sound familiar but I’m at a loss for why. They’re eerie and confident in what they’re saying and they give the songs a marching quality, sung in that Northwestern way that I’ve brought up before—the John Roderick/Robin Pecknold type of really milking the vowels for everything they’ve got.

Then the kick drum and leg bell things come in and bring it into a full-on Fleet-Foxes-Andean-Mountain-tribal-anthem sound. The distortion and other effects were used sparingly and the heavy breakdowns weren’t always what would end a song—often it would dip into an almost cacophanied heavy version of how it started, only to return to where it began, or a third part.

Based on all this, I was super impressed with Hot Tears and it’s a definite recommendation to catch this set as it’s touring around this coast.

Providence’s Malportado Kids were last up and didn’t have a whole lot of time due to the house wanting to be considerate of late night noise.

They set up their laptop and light show against the back wall (trippy screensavers and old cartoons to match each beat) and got right into it.

Joey DeFrancesco was in control of the beats, which were very short and repetitive samples, while playing a tom drum with mallets. Victoria Ruiz, lead shouter, was fierce and dancing with everyone with whom she could get in contact. Full disclosure, I’m pulling up thesaurus.com right now so I don’t use the word shout a million times. The words were cried out with a ton of passion, but I don’t speak Spanish very well, or rather, I’m not great at interpreting over loud, dizzying beats. So another thing I’m doing is putting their lyrics into a translation site. Turns out most of it is pretty political stuff.

I don’t have context for a lot of the political statements—songs like “Fuego,” saying things like “we need to be free” between songs—well, they’re either vague or they’re all-encompassing and universal, depending on how you want to spin it. Songs like “Mi Concha,” or rather, the translation I’m reading right now of the lyrics, are way more direct in what they’re trying to say.

My personal dichotomy with this is that the loud, piercing, repetitive beats seem to be trying to get you to turn your brain off and just dance and be loose, whereas the subject matter and the loud and, at times angry, shrieking and whooping seems to be more of a call to action. Maybe this is like training your brain to always think about what you’re hearing, even under compromised situations? That’s how I’d spin it.

It was a fun experience and I think if you are looking for a loud space to dance and be frustrated at the state of the world and race relations with a bunch of other people, check these guys out. They hold nothing back.