The Holy Shakes play White Water Tavern Wednesday with R.I.O.T.S. and Booyah! Dad. Brian Chilson

The Holy Shakes play White Water Tavern Wednesday with R.I.O.T.S. and Booyah! Dad.

  • Brian Chilson
  • The Holy Shakes play White Water Tavern Wednesday with R.I.O.T.S. and Booyah! Dad.

RACEBANNON
9:30 p.m. White Water Tavern.

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UPDATE: Thanks to the sharp-eyed Sammy Williams for noting that Racebannon has cancelled. The Holy Shakes of Hot Springs and Little Rock’s Booyah! Dad (described as “a psychedelic B.T.O.,” which, hell yeah!) have been added to the lineup. The Holy Shakes will release their debut, “Feast or Famine,” very soon on a swank, 180-gram LP. It’s streaming right over here, and it is the jam.

By the early to mid ’90s, hardcore had more or less splintered into a couple-three dominant strains. You had the hordes of Victory Records type bands that followed the macho lunkhead lead of Sick of it All, Madball and the like. These outfits appealed to your beefy frustrated dudes who liked to mosh at shows because it gave them an outlet for beating the crap out of other beefy frustrated dudes. Much like Homo neanderthalensis, this scene was evolutionarily a dead end.

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Over on the opposite end of the spectrum, you had your dissonant, smarty-pants screamers, such as Universal Order of Armageddon and Antioch Arrow. These bands appealed to the wimpy frustrated dudes who didn’t like to mosh at shows, preferring to stand in the back, arms folded, with the other wimpy frustrated dudes. This scene did evolve over the years, as noise rock, no wave skronk and art-school leanings set in and mutants like The Locust and The Blood Brothers proliferated.

Racebannon, of Indianapolis, fits loosely into this tradition, plying an art-damaged trade that at times recalls a more metal-influenced Arab on Radar. The band’s latest, “Six Sik Sisters” has a particularly unhinged vibe. It’s the sound of an anxiety attack and would be the perfect birthday present for that special disturbed loner in your life.

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Opening up is R.I.O.T.S., the excellent local practitioners of classic hardcore, à la Dischord ’80-’83, “The First Four Years,” F.U.’s, The Dicks, MDC and other timeless touchstones of sonic aggression. In this time of political corruption, economic uncertainty and general dismay, there’s a crying need for a R.I.OT.S. demo tape. Maybe like seven or 12 songs about how everything’s all effed and the harshness of reality and stuff. How about it dudes?

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