Estrogen Highs are on tour this week and are rolling into Columbus, Ohio tonight to headline a show at the Cafe Bourbon Street. With a couple of singles now to their credit, the New Haven, Connecticut four-piece scrape out a jagged rendition of bottom feeding rock'n'roll. Their latest effort on Milk 'n Herpes Records contains the sort of hollow guitar sound and echo-dipped vocals that seem to put one in a descending spiral of moral fitness, and throw musical aptitude aside in favor of a soulful execution. And although tonight's line up is packed with some of the coolest acts of their ilk, their set will certainly stand out.
The rest of the evening is a literal bastion of Cow Town's current crop troubadours that are banging out a range of styles from the folky drippings of RFTO Bandwagon to blaring and eerie threnody of the Fey Gods. In case you weren't yet familiar, Fey Gods is the new project from Nick and Lula of the Grave Blankets, but with more No-Wave screech appeal, and trimmed down to a menacing two-piece that you'll soon be hearing lots more about. The Guinea Worms, who've been a force in Columbus in one form or another over the past ten years, released their latest, already classic "Box of Records" single this past summer on Columbus Discount Records. They brilliantly bridge the cornball punk aesthetic with an oddly post-punk angle and come up with sound that digs at the heart with the sort of claws that are sure to set them apart from their peers.
The standout of tonight's show is RTFO Bandwagon, whose sound is as antipodal to the rest of the bill as you can get. They play with a modern folk sound that lands in the same field as The Dutchess And The Duke and Thee Oh Sees, highlighting the odd and awkward nuances of the genre to full effect. Check out their 7" on Dull Knife, and look out for Fey Gods' debut 7" out on HoZac Records in the upcoming months as well.
Check out a video clip of Estrogen Highs from earlier this year in Chicago, right here...
