“Take me down to LA, I wanna go down”
It’s wild to think that the last time I wrote a show review was in 2019. Here we are in the waxing and waning throes of a two-year-long global pandemic and while still testing regularly and waiting for information on the next COVID variant it seems like we’re beginning to move toward a new normal. There’s something surreal and strangely dystopian about going to a concert, let alone to a MinSynth one, but that didn’t stop the many, if any, from attending Boy Harsher’s return to Los Angeles.
Thanks to the usual traffic woes I was told that early attendees were treated to a screening of the short film The Runner. The film that accompanies their recent album/soundtrack release of the same name is available on the Shudder streaming service, and it is definitely worth a watch as it meshes a strange story about a monster with a quasi-scripted documentary of the making of the album. As such, by the time I managed to get inside the Belasco Theatre the crowd was already quite large and increasing in size.
Preceding Boy Harsher’s performance was tourmate Troller, an Austin-based heavy darkwave three-piece who combine sludgey doom metal with creeping synthy soundscapes. While perhaps not quite as catchy or overtly dancy, Troller provided a nice contrast while staying in theme with the beat and synth-driven Boy Harsher.
To say that a Boy Harsher performance is an experience is no understatement. From the moment the lights dimmed and fog machines kicked out the mood was set. Utilizing the darkness and haze to take the stage it was as if the duo of Jae Matthews and Augustus Muller simply appeared rather than walk on from offstage.
Everything about their performance utilizes the less is more ethos of MinSynth (minimalist synth) they worked the crowd up into a series of frenzies and sexual tension (and in some cases relief) that I almost forgot was a thing after two years of hiding in my house and social distancing. The throngs of dark-clad concertgoers undulated and danced around as if we had never been apart for that dark period of concert-less existence. All-in-all, it was such a welcome change of pace that I left the venue clutching my records from the merch table in a state of bliss.
