In speaking with Matt Wagner, the B-Sides executive at Messiah, after the Pterodactyl show Wednesday night, he shared his philosophy on B-Sides, stating that “There might only be a handful of tables filled for B-Sides sometimes and then a bunch of people not really paying close attention, but those that are there for the music will get something out of it and that’s what it’s about.” Sure, those weren’t the exact words, but close enough. The point being that you can’t please the masses. If that is your goal, then you’ll continually alienate the same kids.
So every once in a while, there’s a B-Sides that some people might not get. I thought Pterodactyl was going to be pretty empty, but there were a surprising number of people there. And I’m sure that at least some of them actually got it. The band may have been a bit absent minded at times, but the music was what I was there for.
And the music was good. It was dissident and mathy and probably resembled a bad acid trip at times. Their sounds ranged from playful to depressed to moderately scary. The music is somewhere between Grandchildren and A Place To Bury Strangers, but I’d place the performance closer to the noise rock genre. There was a lot of sound modulation via a Line 6 DL4 and various fuzz stomps as well that all added to a rather strong presence. The four-piece consisted of guitar, bass, synth, and drums. The synth player was the only one who didn’t sing, so with 3 voices you also got some harmonizing and occasionally some pop-esque vibes.
Mash all of that together, and, like I said, I don’t think too many people really appreciated what they were hearing. It didn’t help that the mix was rather synth-heavy as well. It was rather deafening, but knowing that that wasn’t the intention helped to be able to see past some of the shows flaws. So really, as a show, it was rather sub-par. As music, however, it was enough for me to buy an album. Take a listen for yourself: