Came for Turnstile & left with Basement's discog
by chuckylarms on 5/3/16The Stone Pony - Asbury ParkRating: 5 out of 5My friends and I showed up as Colleen Green went off stage and Defeater started their set. Defeater, who I'm not familiar with past their Lost Ground EP, were fantastic. Vocals were consistent and the playing was tight, and the live mix was pretty fat for a single guitarist. They closed the set with "Red White and Blues" off the aforementioned EP, which was really fantastic. Turnstile, who I came to see, ripped it up in typical fashion. There was a barrier between crowd and stage, and stagediving was expressly forbidden by the venue, so the usual crowd interaction you see at their shows was absent aside from the few times Brendan jumped into the crowd. Music wise, the tones were great, and they put on an engaging show with nothing more than themselves; no fancy lighting, stage decorations, or backing tracks. Just the four of them tearing through banger after banger, including Drop, Phased Out, Gravity, Canned Heat, and Blue By You. It was my first time seeing them and it exceeded all of my expectations. Basement, who I was mostly unfamiliar with aside from the track Aquasun, absolutely killed it. Their drum sound was FAT, above all else, to my ears, and the mix was almost as smooth as the album version. The vocalist's singing was about as shaky as you would expect from their releases. Never even close to perfect with pitch or consistency, but he delivered it with sincerity, and music like this wouldn't be suited by perfect performances anyways. The atmosphere of their set was overall soothing and very relaxed, aside from the few hardcore kids who continued to two-step any time a crash cymbal was hit. They had nothing but soft, colored wash lights, and some plain white lamps which performed both wash and strobe duties; combined with tons and tons of fog, they had a nice glowing haze which greatly complimented the vibe of their music. The standout of their set, and of their newest release, to me, is "Oversized," a super chill nirvana-meets-into-it-over-it track. After the show, I went up to the merch booths intending to grab Turnstile's "Nonstop Feeling" on pink vinyl, and a random Basement LP. However, Turnstile's vinyl stock was sold out, and I ended up getting Basement's "Promise Everything" and "I Wish I Could Stay Here" on a sort of tangerine-cream/white merge and cherry/white spatter, respectively. Promise Everything is an amazing album, and lately has been the soundtrack to many naps, placed on repeat on my turntable. It's also fantastic to make out to.