Ringo Deathstarr

  It is never lost on me who I see when this band plays Chicago. Its always cool because that field is
usually within my own parameters. Its usually someone I already like or have a curiosity about. This bubble is small. That is so cool that you have to snort it like blow, is this.  Sometimes its people that I am friends with.  I'm sorry...that was a fat line I snorted. I need a minute, this shit hits the head first.  Numbs the gums, right?  Well, you know you can't let it stay in your head. You can make a total ass of yourself. Anyway....I saw the Pandas, Scott Cortez, Sophie from Fauvely. Lightfoils...Lightfoils. This show at Chop...I am lucky that I can be at relative ease in this environment, that I can be an accepted animal in this ecosystem.  Ringo Deathstarr are made people, in the shoegaze world, they are made, like five fucking families made. They are from Austin, Texas. They brought someone way fucking cool with them, The Bad Signs!  They are getting their own post, but the experience was together. Their CD Black Magic Moments was fucking crazy! But once again, they are getting their own post. Back to Ringo Deathstarr.
  They play loud and aggressively. You need ear plugs to be near them, something, rolled up napkin, or you are fucked! They will blow you fucking ear drums out .  They will raw dog your ears like you is something special. The album I bought from them this time was Mauve, from 2012. It is now 2018 and that year, anything past 2016 really strikes me with such innocence.  This specific album I have will imprint starting now. I know its a product of a certain place in time. God's Dream I heard before and so shit will strike according to what imprinted first. And out of that fog I got Pure Mood somehow. Oh, and Colour Trip ....and all this because I like the track Summertime, not even the whole album. Well, yeah...the whole album, but not until way way later. That one song, days before the first concert I saw them.  As well as I can recall, that was Darkroom on Chicago Ave. So I bought that one when I could not find Summertime. Every thing I got from this band was from their merch table.

 Its always individual songs on their albums that hook me from this band. Sometimes its one song that holds me to an album until the rest sink in, like with Summertime. On Pure Mood Stare At The Sun and Dream Again have the main gravitational pull. I let the others bloom at their time.  Sometimes they sneak up on you when they decide to play it.  Also they are so abrasively fuzzy, that I can sometimes get lost in it. The songs kind of reveal when they are ready. That is how the shoegaze fog keeps its mysterious edge. Live, they kill it all the time.  They are masters at harnessing the aggressive fuzz and swirls of their guitars. Elliot Frazier's breathy voice is  chill and relaxed like on a couch, while his guitar wails away. 

Ms Alex Gehring with her bass blunts the sharper edges of Elliot's tornado swirls.  It was a cool show at Chop Shop. The band seemed to be at ease with the Chicago crowd, revealing stories about their travels, acid trips, places they hate....They are well traveled. They've played Japan and Europe. When I see them here, its always to a big crowd that is already sold on them. I don't know if I would introduce someone new to them. They are not for a beginner.  I don't got time to be looking over and seeing if they is into it. That's why it makes me happy to see the friends that I noted earlier. These are musicians seeing other musicians. Preachers and choirs and lowly ushers, and they are all from the same fucking denomination. We are the best possible audience for Ringo Deathstarr. Outside of that bubble, they get murdered for the name alone. For me, to a beginner they are the canary in a hungry coal mine. If you do not like shoegaze, or at least something like it, this may fall flat. And that's cool, more parking for me. I'm sold on them. Zig