Needle Points, Twincest, Paperhaus and Zula at Palisades 12/10/14

Needle Points, Twincest, Paperhaus and Zula

Palisades

December 10, 2014

With 2014 coming to a close, there will be a bit of looking back at the year that was – a year that managed to be wonderful, strange and complicated both professionally and personally. All of that is somehow part of being an adult. But as a song so wisely says “I wouldn’t trade one stupid decision for another five minutes of life."

But I digress a bit here, so let me get to business. A couple of weeks ago I was at the Palisades in Bushwick, Brooklyn for a night of psych-based indie rock featuring Philadelphia’s Needle Points, Twincest, Washington, DC’s Paperhaus, and Brooklyn’s Zula.

Needle Points played a set of very muscular, gritty psych rock that owed a sonic debt to the garage rock and psych rock of the 1960s and early 1970s. But somehow they were wilder, more unfettered and it was a lot of fun. I hope to catch hem around.

Twincest, the second act of the night was a bit frustrating to watch and listen. As musicians they weren’t the most talented and at times they had interesting musical ideas that were marred by poor execution or muddled songwriting. (Although I couldn’t find a ton about them this is kind of common for relatively new bands, who are still trying to figure out themselves and their voices.)
Paperhaus was by far the most polished and accomplished of the bands that played that night, as they’ve been a key part of Washington, DC’s emerging indie rock/psych rock scene for the past 5 years or so. Playing material from their forthcoming self-titled new album, the material managed to be incredibly nuanced and grounded in the unpredictability of improvisation and prog rock. Songs managed to morph and twist while defying conventional song structure in a way that reminded me of the most complex prog rock.
Zula, who was the headliner was a headliner that I couldn’t quite understand – I actually found them kind of boring. Their songs fell flat and their vocalist’s voice bothered me. In some way I couldn’t wait until their set ended. Sad, but very true.

Check out some photos from the evening below.

Needle Points