Arc In Round, Yucca Tap Room 10/22/12

I'm a bloody sucker for shoegaze. Even if it sounds relatively crappy to a "veteran" shoegaze groups like Slowdive or My Bloody Valentine, I have trouble saying no. Luckily, getting turned on to Arc in Round turned out to be far above average.

See also: Arc In Round's Jeff Zeigler on Balancing Life as a Producer and Performer

However, even if you're just a little shoegaze, you will typically inspire shoegaze audiences. After Knesset closed, it was a dead crowd. Most of the crowd was hunched over the bar or had already gone home. I even joked about turning the band 90º to face everyone, but it was still empty as fuck on that floor.

It didn't matter. Arc In Round electrified. That's a good way of saying it, because their post-punk infused melodies felt like licking a thousand 9-volt batteries or falling into a pool clutching a plugged-in microwave. Zap.

In other words, Arc in Round was moving, making me feel a hundred good pulses at once. But no one was up there with me besides Michael Bell and literally two other guys. While it almost felt like a show just for myself, it also felt lonely. Everyone else was talking to the bartender, maybe half-listening or maybe not.

I don't understand it. I can drink a PBR and still shuffle a knee while staring at my bowling sneakers. I'd much rather get drenched in said beer and dance until I was sweating through every pore, but I'll take what I can get, even if it's just me tapping my toes to the beat.

Maybe it was because it was Monday night or the Melvins were playing at Crescent or maybe it was the presidential debate, (ha ha, yeah right) but this is somewhat typical of Phoenix audiences. But what if Arc in Round never comes back to Phoenix because you guys didn't show support? What if no other decent sonic noise walls grace our stages? What if nothing cool ever rolls through here again? This is why we can't have nice things, Phoenix. Or, maybe it was just too loud for the Yucca's sound system to handle.

It shows how collected and professional a band is to still shine in circumstances like this. Arc In Round were truly something else and that's all that matters.

Last Night: Arc In Round, Knesset at Yucca Tap Room The Crowd: Many of my favorite Yucca faces and your typical dreaded-out hippies just there for the drinks. Overheard: Yelling at the band: "What's Philadelphia like? What's the Liberty Bell like?" "It's cracked." "What's Will Smith like?" "He's cracked, too." Personal Bias: Because I am not the greatest at managing my time, I have never seen Knesset live before, despite interviewing them back in April. Of course they killed it, especially their closing song.