Amusement Parks On Fire

Ekko is a favourite venue of mine, and it certainly didn't disappoint tonight. Amusement Parks On Fire delivered a great show. We got there a bit early, so had plenty of time to hear the soundcheck, watch the merch stand get put up and generally waste time. By the time the opener took the stage, we were very ready. You Slut!, a side project of APOF's guitarist, put in a strong performance, with their instrumental, almost mathy wall of sound rumbling the entire place with intense precision, while the razor-sharp drums punctuated the phrases perfectly. They had a bit of a stoner/desert rock feel to them, though that wasn't their main focus. Regardless, it was a solid opening act.

The interesting thing about Amusement Parks is that, within the crushing walls of distortion they put up, each song is at its core dreamy, spacey pop. In principle, it's not unlike My Bloody Valentine, but the sound is fairly different, in that it really sounds like a skin of distortion protecting the fragile pop inside. It works extremely well. This was obvious from the opening chords of "Blackout" all the way up to the closure of "Cut To Future Shock". Throughout, they showed an incredible amount of focus, with the former one-man band, current five-piece clearly getting really into their songs. It was a great show, and I'm very glad I caught it. On to ZXZW!
Amusement Parks on Fire setlist:
Blackout
New One (obviously a new song)
In Flight
Out of the Angeles
A Star Is Born
Eighty Eight
Venosa
Venus in Cancer
(Encore) Cut to Future Shock