All I want for Christmas is gloom. December 5th was likely a magical night for many in the Boston area – it snowed for the first time just before Mariah Carey brought the holiday cheer to TD Garden. A few stops down the green line, however, was a show reflecting a different part of winter. Industrial rockers Uniform and death industrial singer Pharmakon brought their December tour to Arts at the Armory on an appropriately cold night in Somerville, and we were lucky enough to catch it.
Both of the opening acts complemented one of the two headliners well. Up first was The Infinity Ring, a regional act that set the tone – if not the volume – of the acts that would follow. The band played an expertly ominous goth folk, occasionally interspersing bursts of noise or rock into prolonged, drone folk. It married with Pharmakon’s performance of pure experimentation. True Body followed, who were closer to Uniform’s more standard rock song structure. The Virginia band played punk songs that were largely midtempo but very high energy. The band wasn’t particularly loud for the style of music they played, but their set was frantically nonstop, there was almost no breaks in between songs. It was a nice counteraction to the drone-folk minutes before.
Pharmakon came on next, to no other musicians and no gear besides a table of electronics and a mess of wires. Indeed this proved problematic at first, as she got frustrated getting her mic to work. However, she started looping a beat that was bracing enough that everyone was already into it. Pharmakon’s new album, Maggot Mass, is probably her most consistently pounding album to date – although there are individual tracks, the pulsating, metrical synth beats across all songs make it feel like one relentless suite. To hammer that home, she played the album in full. Her set was exactly as expected – intense and metrical music that was backing a chaotic vocal performance. Pharmakon’s voice was altered for the entire set, and multiple times she found herself deep in the crowd, singing and yelling directly into the faces of fans in the back or gyrating on the floor. The mix of pulsating music and unpredictable vocals was mesmerizing, a raw and unsettling performance to remember.
Uniform opened their set with “This Is Not A Prayer,” the centerpiece of their truly excellent new record American Standard and probably the best song the band has recorded to date. The ceaseless drum line pounds on for six minutes under Michael Berdan’s trademark growling. “Prayer” is a song designed to be played live, and it was absolutely a pummeling force and a remarkable opening statement. Berdan flailed around on stage for the whole show, indicating that despite the cold weather and the relatively sparse attendance at the Armory, they wouldn’t be phoning it in at all. And they didn’t – it was impressively loud and impressively manic from start to finish. Berdan was very accessible, too, working the merch booth for the first three acts and running right off stage still sweat-drenched to greet fans after their set.
American Standard is very unique from other Uniform albums. While their previous albums have followed a standard ten-ish, four-minute songs, Standard is only four tracks. Side A is solely a 21-minute long title track. “Prayer” is nearly seven minutes, and “Clemency” is nearly eight. “Permanent Embrace” clocks in at a humble four minutes. Their setlist at the Armory consisted of just these four songs. After “Prayer,” the band ripped thorough the monstrous “Clemency,” with a pounding riff that edges on doom metal. The band closed with “American Standard,” a song that starts off with a lengthy call-and-response bit. Berdan held a flashlight to the crowd and growled his part. At first the fans were a bit confused, but one person understood the assignment and growled everything back. Quickly, everyone else was doing the same. In typical fashion, this wasn’t exactly like when a singer lets the crowd sing a chorus. Everything about Uniform’s music is manic and unsettling, and this was no different. The band ripped through the 20+ minute song to close everything out. Beldan left the stage with two parting statements guaranteed to get support: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, and fuck the Yankees.”
To say that Pharmakon and Uniform make miserable music sounds like an insult when it isn’t – both artists brought their gloomy and unnerving best to Somerville, music as biting as the wind howling outside the venue. It was an excellent gig and a great alternative to what most people may consider “December music.” Let the chills run through you.
