HEALTH w/ Pictureplane + Ian Hicks @ Neumos (12/8/2015)

I came for Pictureplane, but stayed for HEALTH.

I actually ended up seeing all 3 acts on the bill because I wasn't sure of the relationship between door time (8 PM on this night) and show time (9 PM) at Neumos.  Ian Hicks put on a short (~25 minutes) DJ set that wasn't too bad - I didn't really expect anything from this, considering that I didn't know his work.


Pictureplane played a little longer than I expected, which I think caused HEALTH to start about 15 minutes late at 11.  He threw in a pretty good mix of old and new.  His diversion this time around was a video in the background that threw out some weird accusations about some people secretly being reptiles - I didn't quite get it, but it was something to look at.  Other than that it was him occasionally twisting some knobs and sometimes singing, in addition to some pacing.  Last time I saw him he had a solitary dancer (who had some nice moves).  I don't know that his show could ever stand strongly on its own, but it's satisfactory if you're into his music.  And I'm digging the latest album from a couple of months ago.


I'm pretty sure HEALTH was trying to make the audience have epileptic seizures and go deaf.  And I feel dumb for not considering acquiring some earplugs for the show, considering that I knew that they are a noise rock act.  Oh well...I'll just deal with more hearing loss and my ears ringing for a day or so.  As for their music, some of it was pretty good - at least the parts when they weren't just making noise for the sake of it.  I actually checked out their latest album beforehand during my commute on the day of the show, and I had a good first impression of it; this last minute investigation is what caused me to stay to hear them play.  It seemed more melodic than some of their past stuff, and the songs on it that they played during the show (as far as I could tell) seemed to be the ones I enjoyed the most.

Rating: 4.0/5