by Donte Kirby
Man or Astro-man?, Wray and The Pack AD put on a interstellar performance that had fans experimenting with the effects of bodily collisions in the three dimensional space known as The Underground Arts.
Wray (photos by Donte Kirby)
Wray is a three piece from Birmingham with a trance-like psychedelic sound and a bit of a kick to it. The songs from Wray’s set came from their self-titled album and there was a heavy emphasis on instrumentation. It wasn’t hard to close your eyes and lose yourself in the music. Abstract chromatic colors were projected on Wray as they performed. As the bassist droned in a melodic tone there was an ginger haired man dancing like no one was there. The more intense the guitar rifts, the harder he danced.
The Pack AD, a duo from Vancouver, had the most traditional rock sound of the evening. Their sound had a rawness and energy similar to Veruca Salt. With only two women on stage, The Pack AD feels like six.
The Pack AD
Man or Astro-man? fed off the energy in the crowd and returned that energy ten fold. From beginning to end the six piece was controlled chaos on the stage. The love between Philly fans and Man or Astro-man? was so strong that when a fan heckled Birdstuff (aka Brian Teasly) and told him to “Febreeze” his orange neon jumpsuit, Teasly asked the heckler come up and smell his armpits to judge how bad he smelled. The heckler gladly obliged.
For one song, all of the night’s acts got together to form what Birdstuff described as “the world’s most mediocre power group.” At the end of the night the band said “Philly don’t change, don’t you dare change.” Then Birdstuff built a beacon out of all the band storage equipment to phone home.
Man or Astroman?
After all was said and done there was one more act in the black box, Weird Hot, courtesy of the late night cabaret. There were free pancakes. It was the best show ever.
