Show Review: High., Punchlove, Knifeplay, Creepoid at Music Hall of Williamsburg.
August 16th, 2025.
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“That’ll be 15 big ones” -Bartender quoting the price of a can of Stella
August 17th, 2025
Sometimes we end up at a gig because we threw a dart at a board, or got lost in transit. You know, not quite intentionally, not quite unintentionally. Last night we caught High., Punchlove, Knifeplay, and Creepoid at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg, mostly because we had never been to the venue before. It’s fun to fly semi-blind sometimes and not know a whole lot about the bands. It was a great night of even greater sound. Here’s our account of what went down:
All three of High.’s guitars were black, a slick coordinated look. As for the music, it was like someone put a vinyl copy of Fontaines D.C.’s Romance on a turntable that was spinning too slow. It was all floor tom, all the time. Fuzzy guitars swirled around in a cloud of chorus as this slowgaze pounded it out.
We had recently seen Punchlove just last month at Baby’s, so we were ready for their early switcheroo magic trick. What was also magical was their stage video setup. A member held a JVC camcorder on stage that provided a live visual feed of the set, except the signal was getting routed in between to a control board that distorted and manipulated the video to an extreme psychedelic degree. It added up to a satisfying audio-visual punch to the gut.
Knifeplay changed the stage lights to red and kept them there throughout the entire set. This dynamic six piece took its time, several songs were long, developing themselves into a wall of sound, like a waterfall in slow motion. Our favorite was a slow crooner with brushes on the drums and slide on lead guitar. We dug through their bandcamp lyrics to try and find the title but came up empty-pawed. They win our unofficial award for “most tuning breaks in a set”.
We knew nothing about Creepoid beforehand so we were in for a treat. They opened with a MASSIVE sound. Not loud, but thunderously heavy, with a bass frequency that grabbed you by the shoulders and shook you violently. We felt this noise rattling our bones as much as we heard it in our ears. Guitars were groaning and squealing with the whammy bar constantly in flux, often serving as a higher register drone to balance the weight of the rhythm section. It was more than music, it was a visceral experience. This show is part of Creepoid’s return to performing after a seven year hiatus.
The night was warm as we crawled out the show and down to the bustling Bedford L station. A rat has to get home and sometimes we ride the train, too. We felt lucky to witness High., Puncholve, Knifeplay, and Creepoid do their thing. Connect with them to catch their next show and you’ll know what we mean. Rrrock On, Rrrat Pack, see you around.
| Keywords: | New York City | Music Hall Of Williamsburg | High. | Punchlove | Knifeplay | Creepoid |
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