Show Review: Sana Sana, Black Ends, Trophy Wife, MKULTRA at Purgatory Brooklyn NYC.
April 19th, 2025.
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A perfect night of music between Heaven and Hell
April 20th, 2025
Purgatory Brooklyn was jam packed with souls on a Saturday night. We wouldn’t say it was hot as Hell, but it was New York City’s hottest day of the year so far with temperatures topping out at near 80 degrees. After a day of soaking up the sun we spent the evening basking in the sounds of Sana Sana, Black Ends, Trophy Wife, and MK ULTRA. Here’s our record of the night:
Sana Sana’s lead had a long black ribbon hanging from the top of the neck of their guitar. It swung around like it was caught in a breeze, and maybe there was a breeze from all the sweet, heavy waves of sound that were swirling around the stage. It wasn’t heavy headbanging though, but heavy head bobbing. Towards the end second guitar began doing the craziest note bends by grabbing the top of the neck and pulling it towards themselves, like they were trying to fold the guitar in half.
Black Ends was visiting all the way from Seattle, traversing the entire nation to bless us with their mayhem. That’s what it was, beautiful mayhem. Their still-fresh debut album is aptly called Psychotic Spew. This power trio each channels their own flavor of melodic mania and it somehow blends together perfectly to create a blissful psychosis of sound. Their bassist plays a fretless bass, reducing the friction as they fly up and down its neck. Their drummers' sticks were shredded and frayed beyond repair by the end of the set. At one point the tip of one just blew off and they had to grab a replacement. It ended in a spastic cyclone of steel strings and noise. It was their last show of the U.S. leg of their tour, they’re off to Europe for May and we wish them well!
We reminisced about how the last time we saw Trophy Wife at Purgatory it was the day after Valentine's Day and there was a couple in the corner of the front row that viciously made out with each other in front of a speaker for nearly their entire set. Sadly that did not happen again, but Trophy Wife still brought the heat. Our favorite song of this night was The Shame from their most recent album Get Ugly. The world spins round at a thousand miles an hour, Purgatory’s disco ball spun slow, but Trophy Wife made time stand still for a few golden moments.
We’d never seen MK ULTRA before, what a treat we were in for. At first we thought they were thrash punk bordering on the edge of power violence. They performed slightly schizophrenic skits in between songs and their lead singer jumped off stage to throw themselves around the front mash pit. But then they suddenly slowed things down and threw us off with a swingy, groovy, funky song. Their lead reminded us of a punk rock Scott Wayland. The surprises kept coming, our favorite song of the night being In A Rut which built itself off a samba beat and rhythm. It was an ULTRA experience and a perfect way to close out the show.
We left feeling grateful. Many of the artists throughout the night expressed similar sentiments in one way or another, to have the chance to cultivate something so passionately full of energy. Did you miss the gig? Connect with Sana Sana, Black Ends, Trophy Wife, and MK ULTRA and maybe next time you won’t. Rrrock on, Rrrat Pack, see you later.
| Keywords: | New York City | Purgatory | Sana Sana | Black Ends | Trophy Wife | MK ULTRA |
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