Cher Khan + Fight the Future: Private Show @ Paxton Studios 10.12

Live performance

Almost six months after releasing their debut single, native post-hardcore band Cher Khan placed on their first reside gig at Paxton Studios over the weekend. I’ve written about Cher Khan a pair occasions, so I used to be thrilled to attend and see if the group could be as dynamic and rowdy as their recordings. I used to be not disenchanted. Between Struggle the Future’s raucous opening, Cher Khan’s thunderous efficiency and the charmingly unorthodox venue, this turned out to be an all-time native present for me.

Struggle the Future kicked off the night time with “Gaslight,” their Bikini Kill-adjacent anthem about holding to the reality of your personal narrative it doesn’t matter what you’re advised to consider. I’d by no means seen Struggle the Future reside, and I used to be steamrolled by their titanic stage presence. Singer Kelly Inexperienced stomped and hopped round like a screaming kangaroo in fight boots whereas the remainder of the band explosively chugged at their devices on the plush rugs that served because the venue’s stage.

I used to be significantly enthralled by the way in which Inexperienced slipped forwards and backwards between haranguing the mic clutched in her highly effective fist and smiling warmly on the viewers between lyrics. “I’m pissed, however not at you. You’re my pal since you’re right here with me” is the impression she provides, making house for everybody keen to hitch in her righteous defiance of patriarchy, homophobia and racism. 

Struggle the Future rumbled like a tank by means of their 30-minute set, enjoying all their greatest songs, together with my private favourite, “Erica.” Then, it was time for Cher Khan to take the stage. 

I wish to pause right here and speak slightly bit in regards to the venue, which added simply as a lot character to the present as any of the musicians. Paxton Studios is each bit as intimate as Kilby Court docket, however it’s additionally as blue collar as a blacksmith’s workshop—as a result of that’s roughly what it’s. The constructing was once a warehouse, however John Clarence, a former contractor, has transformed it right into a multipurpose house for 2 of his ardour initiatives: making music and making knives. 

Throughout the present, energy instruments hung from hooks alongside the cinder block partitions and heavy machines rested beneath tarps like immense, angular ghosts who’d gathered from past the grave to research all of the ruckus. And let me let you know, you haven’t heard hardcore music till you’ve heard it performed ten toes from an industrial lathe. Distinctive locales like this actually put the “underground” in “Salt Lake underground,” and I’m taking each alternative to catch a present at Paxton Studios any further.  

After a short sound test and a few technical difficulties—throughout which guitarist Brad Rhoades crammed useless air by flexing his spectacular repertoire of early 2000s guitar licks—the band launched into “Cycloptic.” I used to be significantly excited to listen to this music reside due to Aria Newberry’s scalding solo, a spotlight of the band’s self-titled EP. 

With half of her hair dyed pink and the opposite half brown, Newberry evokes Neapolitan ice cream that discovered the best way to completely kick a guitar’s ass. Her nimble fingers hit each notice in her solo with pitch-perfect precision, keying up the viewers for the remainder of the band’s set, which someway solely went upwards from this already staggering top. 

Over the following half-hour, Cher Khan avalanched by means of their complete EP, threw in a implausible cowl of Superheaven’s “Knew” and performed two unreleased songs that singer Syd Hale introduced would seem on the band’s upcoming document.

In distinction to Inexperienced from Struggle the Future, Hale has a way more restrained—however no much less imposing—persona. When she first took the stage, she planted herself like a willow in entrance of her microphone and stared with intense vulnerability on the viewers by means of the curtain of her black bangs. From this resolute stance, she draconically roared by means of every music, galvanizing traces like “Inform me that you just wish to be useless / with out saying that you just wish to be useless” with plasmic vitriol.

Regardless of the palpable angst of Cher Khan’s music, a loving vitality flowed between the bandmates by means of supportive smiles and impish banter. I felt like I used to be watching a household soldered collectively in opposition to the merciless world which they’re making an attempt to make higher with their mixed rage and compassion. 

And whereas Hale largely stayed in a single spot throughout your complete efficiency, Newberry, Rhoades and bassist Wesley Manalo introduced the celebration by thrashing round like folks possessed (with out lacking a single notice), and drummer David Sedano bathed everybody in his bone-shattering percussion.

The band completed with their frenetic new music “Shift Form,” and the home lights got here up in the course of the ensuing applause. As a result of this was a secret present, the gang didn’t have the numbers essential to catalyze a mosh pit, however the vitality for one was undoubtedly there. We within the viewers had been a convulsive mass swaying within the waves of sonic fury that radiated off the band. Coming again to the true world after such a trance is at all times slightly disorienting, and in each blinking face, I noticed the want to be enveloped within the music’s obliterating glow just a bit whereas longer. 

Afterward, I caught up with Hale and Newberry for some particulars in regards to the upcoming album. The official launch date is unknown, however Hale advised me the document will come out in 2025 underneath the title Bliss. I for one can’t wait to listen to some new Cher Khan, and I’m additionally desperate to see the place the band goes after their gorgeous inauguration.

Learn extra live performance protection right here:
Clairo @ The Nice Saltair 10.13
Judah & the Lion @ The Union 10.07

Photographs by India Mendoza | [email protected]