Panthers preview

Panthers
Empty Bottle, Chicago
Friday, June 15, 2007

The Trick or The Joke? Panthers’ latest album and second for Vice is almost a complete abandonment of the past.

Sprung from Brooklyn hardcore punk with the Dischord Records bible in hand, Panthers were a very “now” band when they debuted: Lyrics railed against the establishment while angular guitar parts got so crossed up they seemed to have been written on the spot.

But Trick, both musically and lyrically, almost qualifies as a side project. All the edges have been pounded into smooth shapes, the fantastical things they’re yelling about can only tangentially or metaphorically be called political (“Our generation deserves satisfaction!”), and, well, the whole disc’s speedy, Sabbath rock reminds a whole lot of Queens Of The Stone Age or Wolfmother. We’re to infer stoner metal bands aren’t quite the flag-waving types.

It isn’t to say Panthers aren’t any good at this. To the contrary, The Trick comes more naturally to them than perhaps their old sound, which was purposefully untrained and agitated. Songs like “Goblin City” and “Long Time Coming” are exceedingly familiar but if you sit with them long enough you belatedly notice your cigarette (or *joint* in this case) has burnt to the filter and is making its way through the skin on your knuckles. The jury’s still out, however, on whether this is a reinvention or a regression.

Big Business and Raise The Red Lantern also perform.

— Steve Forstneger

Click here to download “Goblin City.”

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly