Portland – What’s louder than loud? It’s the Cloud Nothings tour, which as of July 2 combines Cleveland’s favorite lo-fi power trio, Cloud Nothings, and Canadian rockers METZ to create a sparkling Pan-American union to rival NAFTA.
Portland’s Hawthorne Theater played host to the first of six dates the two bands will play together before parting ways. The venue is an all-ages room split across the middle by a bar barrier (kids in the front, party in the back); a setup which gave the stage area a vibe not entirely unlike this video:
Cloud Nothings gave their own two cents for the power of catharsis last April in the form of their fourth album, Here and Nowhere Else, a frenetic continuation of the grungy pop punk they perfected on their 2012 breakthrough, Attack on Memory. Like its predecessor, Here and Nowhere Else feels steam powered, as if the pressurized ennui of the lyrics were escaping through the shouted hooks and relentless careening drums.
In person, though, the band has a relaxed Midwestern Everyman air to them. You would swear bassist TJ Duke was a clerk at your local skate shop and drummer Jason Gerycz was in your Algebra class. Frontman David Baldi reminds you of someone, but you can’t quite place it. Then when he speaks to introduce the band it hits you: it’s actor Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Once made, this endearing association is nearly impossible to shake and lends Cloud Nothings’ set an unexpectedly comic dimension.
Associations aside, Cloud Nothings are a ferocious live band. They began with “Now Hear In” and “Quieter Today” off the new album, then played “Stay Useless” from Attack on Memory. Baldi’s ragged voice is surprisingly flexible, and he bent it into a variety of bleeding shapes on the repeating chorus of “I need time to stop moving/ I need time to stay useless.”
Cloud Nothings continued this ratio of old to new for the rest of the set, playing seven songs from Here and Nowhere Else and four from Attack on Memory, including a huge rendition of the instrumental “Separation” in the middle and “I’m Not Part of Me” at the end.
For the encore, Cloud Nothings were down to play, as was the crowd. They came back with a version of “Wasted Days” that evolved into a fantastic 10+ minute noise jam that would probably have made a baby cry. It also may have made some fans cry, but for the best of reasons.
You would think this would be a bad match for METZ, a band that plays abrasive, claustrophobic post-punk, but you’d be wrong. From his trembling full-body Wilhelm Scream at the beginning of set opener “Dirty Shirt,” to his final shriek in closer “Wet Blanket,” frontman Alex Edkins seemed just pleased as punch to be there. His sweaty exuberance brought out the joy in the band’s grim set list (the aforementioned two songs plus “Knife in the Water,” “Negative Space,” “Get Off,” “Wasted,” “Headache,” “Rats,” and “The Mule”) and presented as good an argument as any for the power of catharsis.
