Monday, March 26th locals, Service and Lessener joined touring bands Frail Body and Crowning, on the road from Chicago. The four came together for an Allston basement show at Rat City Community College and helped start the work week on a high note. Each of the four bands had relatively short sets and the gig had a hard ending time of 11:00 pm so they made sure to make every second count. For those unfamiliar with the bands on the bill there were a lot of air tight guitar riffs, screaming, and things were loud (super loud).
The night’s venue, Rat City Community College was a space I hadn’t been to before. The basement had some top notch personal touches that made for a cozy space, including a couch and custom artwork made for each band (I’d also like to point out these were painted on the back of Earth Balance boxes which is another plus in my book). The first band to make their way to the stage was Service. The four piece brought out some technical instrumental segments, brutal vocals and an end to end animated set.
Following Service was one of the two bands from out of state, Crowning. The Chicago skramz group had one of the shorter sets of the night, with some songs coming in at less than a minute long. That being said, what the set lacked in length it made up for in raw quality. The breakdown on their song “Funeral Designs,” the title track of their 2017 EP, was one of the night’s on-stage highlights.
Next up were Crowning’s touring partners, Frail Body. A write-up about a show can never paint the full picture or feeling of being at a show, and Frail Body’s live show is definitely something that you have to see in person understand. The trio played their hearts out on stage, with guitarist/vocalist Paul Shaffer’s voice audibly cutting through the noise in the small room, even at times when he wasn’t mic’d. Shaffer also had some of the speediest on-stage guitar changes I’ve seen at any show. To close out their set the group played some tracks from their 2017 EP, “those that left those that remain.”
Closing the night out was Lessnener. Shortly before their set started they were told that there was a hard cut off of 11:00 pm (it’s a house show on a Monday night after all, people have to get up for work in the morning). Lessener’s vocalist was impressively able to make use of the little space in the packed basement as if he were working on a full sized stage. Finishing up with a minute to spare.
Huge thanks to everyone at Rat City Community College who made the show happen and to all of the bands for coming out on a Monday night. You can check out photos from the gig below.
