This Monday, nestled somewhere between the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx in The Egyptian Room, post-hardcore legends Movements delivered an ultratight set of pop-punk bliss on the final leg of their RUCKUS! tour. Throughout the evening, Scowl showcased their ready-for-primetime IDGAF-punk derangement, and emo powerhouse Citizen demonstrated why they remain the genre staple they deserve to be. ‘Twas a cathartic evening of angst & release in equal measure. Let us dig in…
Scowl
Scowl has been a hungry band for a while, but considering that their label debut for Dead Oceans comes out next week, seeing them right now felt like, uh… seeing Michael Jackson when he was 2. Or something. I believe they are about to blow up, in case that wasn’t clear.
To me, their aesthetic and overall musical style is irresistible : four handsome, capable lads dispatching furious riffs and hardcore architecture, fronted by Perhaps The Most Beautiful And Badass Woman In The World, trading guttural screams and melodic hooks. Take my money, please.
As feedback rang out and the band took their spots, Kat Moss burst onto the scene in a Carhartt hoodie, which was shed at the end of the explosive opening track Wire, setting the tone for an evening of unmistakable, purifying anger.
The band then barrelled through Shot Down, a good example of both sides of the Scowl coin– Moss’s laid back singsongy vocals during the verses smack right next to her frantic scream, flipping back and forth. They then arrived at the lead single Special. In what may be their most singable chorus yet, Kat and co. yearned for an unremarkable life to pass them by against a symphony of huge power chords and distorted harmonics.
The manic Psychic Dance Routine, fan-favorite Bloodhound and their latest single, Not Hell, Not Heaven echoed out soon thereafter, as they shared excitement about their upcoming album Are We All Angels.
The blistering hot minute of F*ck Around showcased the band at their most threatening, squiggly guitar divebombs and all. Opening Night was grungey and bombastic, and closed their set with a huge sting, hyping up the bands still to come.
A quick side-note, this here photographer would like to apologize to the other members of SCOWL that aren’t the lead singer; these are some damn fine players who really sell the show and look good doing it. HOWEVER, I found it physically difficult to ever rip my eyes or camera away from Mrs. Moss, and thus, I didn’t get as many shots as I would have liked of the rest of the band. Such is the folly of having one of the most magnetic frontmen in the game right now. If I had any more than just the first three songs I would have loved to get some better coverage 😅 maybe next time. I’m sure this isn’t the first time a photographer has experienced this kind of hypnotism trying to shoot Scowl…
Citizen
Although I wasn’t as familiar with Citizen’s catalogue as I should have been, a cool confidence radiated through during their set, proving that they are indeed mainstays of the ‘4th wave’ of emo music.
The Night I Drove Alone kicked off their set, seeing frontman Mat Kerekes’s expressive voice reach a raspy climax to a crowd that sang every word back to him. “And I should have crashed the car!!!” punctuated this chilling tableaux.
Next, the fuzzed-out and angular Death Dance Approximately utterly kicked ass, and set sail the biggest wave of crowd surfers yet. The dynamic between the smooth verses and headbanging choruses on this song is simply massive, and showed off their range early in their set.
2023’s track If You’re Lonely featured an almost Strokes-y guitar riff of downstrums with a poppy chorus, proving they are still putting out some of their catchiest music to date.
Another mid-set highlight was Dogs, a more alt- rock piece that wouldn’t feel out of place on a Turnstile record.
Sonically, Citizen sounds a lot like Movements, or perhaps vice-versa considering that they were a huge influence upon the headliners. At times they have a slightly more shoegazey flavour, as exemplified by tracks like The Summer, which saw guitarist Nick Hamm sustaining and bending out huge open-sounding chords in a wall of sound.
The not-so-subtly-titled I Want To Kill You closed their set, complete with a four-on-the-floor pattern that worked itself into a huge frenzy. Citizen had made a late-to-the-game fan that night, and that fan was me.
Ments
Movements exploded out the gate with their recent single Afraid To Die, sharp guitar riffs building up into a wave of existential dread. The ol’ Lead Pipe into Killing Time 1-2 was up next, really establishing how RUCKUS -heavy this evening’s set would be.
The absolute BANGER Where I Lay would be most bands’ best song. But alas, for these gentlemen, this was merely their most recent single. Just listen to that chorus and TRY to not take your shirt off, crying in a rainstorm. TRY IT I DARE YOU!
I had heard stories of frontman Mr. Patrick Miranda being a total perfectionist, both in the studio and performance-wise. The band’s wiki goes so far as to describe an OCD diagnosis that is reflected in his attention to detail. This information was supported when he announced that the band would be leaving the stage for a moment to address a technical difficulty. The truss supporting the “MOVEMENTS” light in the middle of the stage started lowering, and several lighting techs came out, fiddling with wires in the back of the fixture. The sign would only illuminate the “MENTS” part of the word, which I will admit, was a little distracting, so I could see why Miranda wanted that taken care of.
After a couple awkward moments of, i’m assuming, plugging and unplugging cables, the fixture raised again with only MENTS lit up. The band came back onstage, and with a chuckle, Patrick said, “Oh well, at least we tried!”. I was glad to see it not bother them too much, and he relayed a story from the Feel Something tour where they had a similar sign, proclaiming the album’s name, which would often malfunction to only say “EEL SOMETHING”. I thought this was hilarious, and kind of gave a unique moment specific to Indianapolis, so I’m thankful for that. He went on to thank his lighting directors for this tour by name, which I also appreciated, because WOW! The lights were pretty phenomenal.
Their lighting has a very cool effect where harsh-colors are diffused through fog and adjacent colors, basically forming a gradient between them. This effect was bolstered by very cool strips of lighting on the platform upon which drummer Spencer York and guitarist Ira George played. These basically pulsed light in a sort of gradient assisted in adding a real dimensionality to the stage. To my untrained eye, there was no stage wash coming from the front truss (?!), so the entire thing was backlit with the colourful movers providing interesting angles, a little more directionally than your normal show. Very deliberate, very cool look.
OK NOW BACK TO THE SET:
The band then turned the dial down a bit for the heartbreaking ballad Tightrope, and an ocean of emotional voices assisted with that chorus “You took my breath like water in my lungs / I would die to be somebody you could love.” Classic.
A heartfelt speech followed Kept, more than just mentioning support for this tour, Miranda took time to thank each band specifically. He gave more-than-just epithets for Downfall, Scowl and Citizen, pointing out that they are excited to see what’s next for Scowl, a band that has recently transcended the label of ‘hardcore’, and mentioning that he has looked up to Citizen since he was in high school, and emphasizing how important it was for him to have these acts on tour with them. It was kind of cool and a little more heartfelt than your standard ‘hey give it up for X’ shout-out.
Next up, Full Circle and Colorblind back-to-back saw Movements at their most capital-E-Emo, as lyrics of depression cyclical suffering, and the inability to express love rippled through the audience, increasing in volume. Both of these are from their debut album, which was such a hit that in many ways I feared they would cater to these songs more anyway, but the set wound up being pretty evenly split between this record and RUCKUS (No love for No Good Left To Give, though, damn I was really hoping for Skin to Skin…what a song…) Regardless… Colorblind featured a moment in which Patrick called back to the crowd’s “MENTS, MENTS, MENTS, MENTS!” chant. The audience went nuts for this, rightfully so.
“You OK if we play one we barely ever play?” got everybody’s minds racing. I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up for Heaven Sent, which, to me, is one of the more touching love songs of the past couple years. The suspense was killing me until they broke into Deadly Dull, a relatively deeper cut from that same first album. This one showed who the real MENTS-heads were, and many devoted fans still knew every word.
A.M.P. saw Pat hitting some of the highest notes of the evening, and it was very impressive, seeing the band pull off a very poppy track like that with a little more force than is found in the recording.
Another not-so-subtle track title, I Hope You Choke had a lot of crowd involvement and moshing, and certainly the most crowd-surfing of the night.
Towards the end of their set, Miranda once again appealed to pathos, emphasizing that after this leg of the Ruckus tour was over, the band would take some time off, regrouping, and eventually be hitting the studio to make some more music. Therefore, needless to say, we had to give him our all for these last two songs because he didn’t know the next time they were going to be back in Indy.
The climax of Movements’ set concluded with the dramatic Deep Red, a song that lit up the MENTS sign, well… deep red, and caused everyone and their mothers to lose their shit. From here, there was only one song that would be able to follow that one…
There’s simply no way to discuss Movements without mentioning this final song of the night … their merch booth goes so far as to feature a sign on a tip jar saying “My brother in Christ, If you don’t tip, they won’t play Daylilly”. Think of how huge a song must be to be able to threaten your audience like that. Luckily, the merch tip threshold must have been reached throughout the night…
The air was thick with excitement for their closing track, and the first melody of “Outside for the first time, in a long time // Lose yourself, sink into the sunlight…” sent chills down the spine of everyone in attendance. His voice sounded spot-on, little quiver and all. It’s vulnerable, it’s emotional, it makes me want to cry, even before the cathartic “I THINK IT’S TIME YOU HAD A PINK CLOUD SUMMER” rang out of the PA (I can’t keep describing it, my eyes are watering just typing it out). In fact, even these wankers next to me who were yapping about Severance half the show started crying like infants when this song came on. Palpable. “YOU ARE THE RUSTLING OF LEAVES … YOU ARE THAT HONEYSUCKLE BREEZE”. If that line makes you wanna roll your eyes, why don’t you listen to the damn song and try to Feel Something.
There’s no way to follow a song like that. So they didn’t.
All in all, it was a terrific evening of emotional performances and these three bands delivered excellent shows which complimented each other very well. Although I fear in the future Scowl may be too big to be a feature on a bill this stacked at this size of venue, I’m extremely excited to see how they’ve grown and can’t wait for what’s next for them. I’ve been listening to Citizen since leaving the ONC. And if the post-RUCKUS singles are any indication of what’s in store for Movements, the future is bright, baby. What a time to be alive.