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Perhaps I was mistaken about Merchandise.
If Friday's sparsely-attended show at Mississippi Studios was any indication, maybe they are a punk band after all—in the pejorative sense at the very least. Led by the antics of slightly toasted singer/guitarist Carson Cox, these guys collectively did not seem to give two fucks. The music shimmered and excelled within Mississippi's pristine sonics, but their attempts to grow into the sophisticated '80s AOR pop of the recent After the End were marred by boozy hijinks. Cox accessorized with a glass of red wine and an affectation far less proper than the vocal style he adopts on record.
âLittle Killerâ hit with the urgency and lush modulation that gave brief flashes of the performance an enchanting, Echo and the Bunnymen approach to dreamy jangle-pop, but the wheels fell off shortly thereafter, when Cox crashed into and broke the strap of guitarist Dave Vassolottiâs Telecaster. Coxâs microphone went kaput a few seconds into another track, but the band played on as Cox splashed the audience with water. There was no encore, nor did the crowd clamor for one.
Videos of Merchandise shows in the band's native Tampa, Florida, document blowout endings full of crowd surfing and ambiguous "I guess it's over?" shrugs from the members, a stark contrast to the buttoned-up gloss of what is supposedly the group's new direction. Either they get it together and let it fall apart, but it's best for all parties involved to pick one approach and stick to it.
All photos by Colin McLaughlin.
WWeek 2015
