by Ziggy Merritt

Friday night at PhilaMOCA featured a bill of four raucous acts including All Dogs and The Sidekicks supported by Philly-based Marge and Lithuania. I had few expectations going in, this being the first time I had been to the venue in question. However by the night’s end my eardrums were properly deafened, a testament to the slowly rising crescendo of energy that had built up within the compact confines of the former mausoleum showroom.

Marge entered the fray first with an abundance of charm, heavy drumming, and the sizzling feedback of the amp to lend them some extra grit. The vocals supplied by Emily Burtner and Gabby Eisenhower were nigh indecipherable under the feedback and noise, but this too is appropriate for a band fully able to glean the context of any such lyrics from the gravity of their performance. Lithuania followed this act with much of the same aided by an extra layer of showmanship and the barbaric yawps of perennial besties Dominic Angelella and Eric Slick. The backdrop film reel of an array of insects crawling over each other lent the energetic set some missing surrealness that would in turn leak into the upcoming performance of All Dogs.

The headliners supported their recent album releases with The Sidekicks busting through a memorable run of “Jesus Christ Supermalls” from Runners in the Nerved World to Maryn Jones of All Dogs killing it on vocals with the dreamy shred of “How Long” from Kicking Every Day. These were backed of course by singles from their brief yet robust back catalogs with Sidekicks highlights including “1940’s Fighter Jet” and All Dogs cut of “Buddy” from their 2013 7”.

Both sets had their undefinable je ne sais quoi moments where the audience connected on some personal level with the bands. For The Sidekicks this was best indicated by the superfan on the periphery who knew their material by heart enough to enthusiastically mouth it throughout the entire set. All Dogs had more than their fair share from lead singer Maryn Jones overcoming her insectophobia -obviously not aided by the sickening display of ants and roaches behind her- to the wide-eyed confusion displayed by guitarist Nick Harris at the following film reel featuring a human being mauled by a horde of cats. Phantasmagoric as the accompanying images were, they did little to distract from the mesmerizing sets of all involved.