The Echoplex was filled last Tuesday night with fans looking to recapture their dance moves from 2004, the year Glassjaw frontman Daryl Palumbo decided to take a left turn into dance punk and new wave with his side project Head Automatica and its debut album Decadence. It’s an album of pure bangers, so it’s exciting to have Palumbo bringing the project back, and that fervor was felt in the audience throughout the night, as one glittery and seductive track after another was busted out.
To say the night had a solid warm-up act would be an understatement, as Foxy Shazam brought enough heat to light up an inferno onstage. The band is bold, bombastic and better than most mainstream acts in their performance prowess. Decked out in flashy wardrobe, every single member of the group is engaging and entertaining to watch, though frontman Eric Nally is of course the show-stealer (followed closely by the Rasputin-bearded keyboard player). As the band busted out pumped-up tracks like “Unstoppable” or the kinetic “Killin’ It”, Nally danced, crawled, climbed and somersaulted across the stage, rarely ever standing still for long.
A show always feels special when a band does something you have literally never seen another band do, and kudos to Foxy for bringing surprises. During one moment, the keyboardist picked up his keyboard, and had audience members hold it up as he continued to play it. While I was not super familiar with the band’s songs, the band is such a visual feast on stage, that the raucous, Queen-indebted rock n’ roll they perform almost feels like an afterthought for their antics. That’s not to say their songs like “Love Like This” and “Bombs Away” aren’t glorious bops – they’re just eclipsed by the band’s furious performance of them.
Following up an act like Foxy Shazam is not an easy feat, and headliners Head Automatica didn’t attempt to match them in movement. But what the New York band has are a big batch of songs that have only gotten better with age. The group got their party started with “At the Speed of a Yellow Bullet” and the ever-funky “Brooklyn is Burning”. Listening to that song, one remembers that this album came out at the same time as Franz Ferdinand‘s debut. IMO – Head Automatica should have been just as big (or bigger) than that fine Scottish band. On top of having the angular post-punk style guitars and electronic elements, Palumbo also meshed in a healthy dose of new wave and power pop into his songs, especially on follow-up album Propaganda, which they dipped into with “Lying Through Your Teeth”, and later with the sugary single “Graduation Day” (little tidbit: I was an extra in the song’s video way back in the day).
The band’s modus operandi was clear in songs like “Dance Party Plus”, and got more slinky with “Nowhere Fast”. Sex is a big part of HA’s songs, both getting it and dealing with the aftermath (lyrics like “You made an old friend seem, rather dead to me. Alas the weapon sex can be.” on the excellent “The Razor” that the group played soon after). And in case anyone was wondering if this was merely going to be a reunion tour, the band played a new song called “Last Bible”. I won’t say I loved the new track – it was much harder and darker than most of HA’s other music, more akin to Palumbo’s other band Glassjaw, or even Nine Inch Nails. Time will tell whether the rest of their new tunes stay in this lane.
The main set ended with the debaucherous “I Shot William H. Macy” (a song you don’t want to play anywhere near a church, lol). Everyone knew it was not over, and the band came back and shared their thanks to the audience for showing up despite the fifteen year hiatus since they last played. As the opening notes of “Beating Heart Baby” began, the audience’s enthusiasm hit a new high note. The riotous song had everyone dancing, and the grooving continued as the band ended things on “Please Please Please (Young Hollywood)”, another lust-filled track (lyrics are literally “Let me anoint the lust inside you”). The show brought back many memories of listening to the album on repeat in college. I hope the band sticks around for a while.
If you have never heard Decadence, today’s a great day to. And listen to Foxy Shazam here.
The Indy Review 