(photo by David Mirabedini)

Thee Oh Sees and Total Control smashed North Carolina with a double wallop of weird rock ‘n roll at Krankies in Winston Salem last Saturday. Local maniacs Burglar Fucker opened the gig, but I only arrived in time to catch 1% of their set. From what I did hear, they sounded like Gibby Haynes fronting Lightning Bolt after running the result through an industrial strength blender. In other words…If you see them on a bill, make an effort to get there on time.

(photo by David Mirabedini)

Total Control went on next and had this weird thing where they looked like the inverse of a band you’d expect to be playing sedated post punk songs. Maybe it’s because they consist of a bunch guys from a burgeoning Aussie punk scene, but the band looked ready to fire off a set of ’80s inspired hardcore at any given moment. This rang most true for frontman and MRR contributor DX, who gripped the mic with a hunched posture and a stare so intense it was worthy of becoming a monolith. If you can imagine a Black Flag inked Dolph Lundren singing for a talented no-wave band, you can begin to grasp the bizarreness of the spectacle. Live takes on “Carpet Rash” and “Stonehenge” were spot on, but the set ended bitterly when hopes of hearing “Paranoid Video” were crushed underneath the band’s refusal to appease the crowd’s encore chants.

Forgive the shitty snapshot, but when Thee Oh Sees are on stage you kind of get lost in oblivion. The thick mass watching John Dwyer agreed, as they were wound like a spring before the band hit it’s first note. When it did, the kids in front began zipping around like rubber bands in one of the most energetic mosh pits I’ve seen in recent memory. Girls were falling, kids were biting the pavement in failed crowd surfing attempts and Dwyer was absorbing every second of it, even flicking the stage lights on and off in some ironic form of theatrics.

Dwyer darted around in a semi-circle on the the left corner of the stage for the better part of the night and his high mounted guitar made him resemble something between one of the Three Stooges and a pouncing snake. Bassist Petey Dammit! stood still in a perpetual groove ripped straight out of The Rock-afire Explosion. To add to the curiosity, the group was also sporting double drummers. This upped “I Was Denied”s tempo to a spastic perfection and the band’s live take on “Tidal Wave” had enough force to make the original sound like a demo. If things weren’t crazy enough, Dwyer brought up one of the guys from Burglar Fucker to wail on a snare towards the end of the set, which drove the tempo to absolute absurdity. And after that, everything became a blur.

CHECK OUT SOME MORE SHOTS OF TOTAL CONTROL BY DAVID MIRABEDINI HERE