Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears: DO NOT WANT
Posted by Val in Concert Reviews, The Yellow Stereo
I got to the Black Cat early this week to catch a local band that I like a whole lot, and walked in just in time to see their opener, Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears, take the stage. I immediately walked out. Unfortunately, this was only to buy earplugs from the bar downstairs since they were blisteringly loud. It became clear over the course of their set that I should have stayed out.
For starters, let’s just get into the look. The lead singer, who I assume to be Bryan Scary, looks like he stole Robert Smith’s hair, Alice Cooper’s eye makeup and his blue jumpsuit from the local garbage collector. The rest of the band was clad in similar jumpsuit attire. However, perhaps this choice of outerwear was on account of Scary’s multiple “costume changes” during the set. He’s put on a hat and look like an outcast from Oliver , or put on a mad scientist robe or eerily large bug-eyed sunglasses to change his persona from Scary to Really Fucking Strange. I frequently wondered just what planet these guys were from and couldn’t help but think that it couldn’t be anywhere near as fun as Planet Peelander.
Then…there’s the music. These guys like some prog. They love their King Crimson and they love their Queen (yes, I am aware that Queen is not prog.) As such, they stuck us with several extra long forays into their weird little world, and with the help of a decrepit looking organ, no less. I’m not going to criticize their energy nor their skill; these guys could certainly play and play with a fervor. However, as far as the music sounding likable, well, I lost interest somewhere in between the BANG BANG BANG BANG of some piano chord and one of Scary’s scenery-eating vocal howls.
Now, I like quirky bands. I like bands that bring a sense of theatricality into their live shows. Heck, one of my favorite shows of the year has come courtesy of Les Savy Fav and another from Peelander-Z. I guess at the core, I prefer post-punk to prog and unpredictability to something as scripted as the obscenities that people yell at the screen during a showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, a movie that I imagine this band has seen many a time. They seem to have built up quite a devoted following who got progressively more excited as the show continued, who all appeared to be standing to my right and who will all, no doubt, hunt me down and flay me alive for posting this review. Whereas the people to my left and standing behind me seemed as excited as I had at Scary’s final declaration of “We’re finished!” At the end of the night, I felt like seeing Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears was like being at a cult meeting, and I hadn’t drunk the kool-aid.
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That’s the funniest thing I’ve read so far today (and I don’t see much topping it)!
Ahh, that’s too bad! I love Scary’s first album, The Shredding Tears. I haven’t heard this new one, though, nor seen him live and with a real band (on the album I have, he plays all the instruments except the drums), so I can’t comment on what they likely played. Still, Scary is definitely inspired by Queen, and a lot of it is kinda prog. sounding. I still recommend The Shredding Tears – maybe it’s a different sound than this new album (I know nothing off of it)?
Haha, I worked at a marketing company that repped them. I never gave them a listen, but I appreciate that you did give them a chance. Props for the honest feedback, keep it up.
You could have gone over the top pro- on this and I would have trusted you no more. An album name like “The Shredding Tears” demands an indecent amount of playing along from the audience/reviewer.