This Weekend In New York: AIDS Wolf Gets Serious, Norton Fest Turns The Bell House Into A Garage

This weekend, Waste Of Paint traveled back in time to take a look at the roots of the neo-garage-rock movement we know and love today. As it turns out, the scene's forefathers and mothers have not gone extinct, but continued on their original paths, sprouting numerous branches along the way. We also saw AIDS Wolf, because why not?

Debbie Allen

Friday night, we traveled to the western edge of Manhattan for a pummeling from Canadian prog-punk/no wave band AIDS Wolf. Despite the cold weather and remote (from Brooklyn) location, the band attracted a small group of hardcore noise heads, eager for an experience at least as brutal as the wind outside. Despite their intentionally awful name (par for the course for a genre that also includes Child Abuse and Arab On Radar), what was once a messy group of costumed bohemians has recently crystallized into a three-piece serious about exploring avant-garde forms.

Drumer Yannick Desranleau created an overwhelming avalanche as he double-kicked and polyrhythmed his way through various compositions, taking an equal amount of inspiration from jazz and metal, while Alex Moskos turned his guitar into a buzzsaw using just analog equipment and his own fingers. Over this maelstrom, vocalist Chloe Lum let fly a distorted stream of babble that sounded like Donald Duck speaking in tongues to (believe it or not!) wonderful effect, although the Melt-Banana fan in me wished she would scream more. Some ambitious people headbanged straight through, while others stood with their arms crossed, expressions of transcendent bliss on their faces.