Chat Pile @ Gothic Theatre
Chat Pile x Soul Glo x Virga
09.20.26
Virga
Coming from Lawrence, Kansas, an absolutely incredible hometown to start a band in (great local scene over there), Virga, a touring three-piece, opened up the night perfectly. I don't think you can find a better example of hardcore shoegaze/doomgaze than this incredible three-piece: the ferocity of the drums, the bassist utilizing what felt like the entire stage as their canvas, the raw vocals and endlessly ringing verses pulling you into a shoegaze noisy wake.
They ended the night with "Perception Management", a 7-minute-long sonic kraken of a song. Pulling you in with a siren's call of Maddox’s vocals and a lull of a guitar lick before the rhythm section expands the song, eliciting the feeling of a storm brewing. After darkening the skies, the thunder cracks with a series of crash symbols in the bridge before it all comes crashing down after the chorus, bringing out post-hardcore elements, and words can't describe the payoff of the outro, being this penultimate moment to close the set out on. Being their first night on this tour, they absolutely stepped up to the podium, brought and left their all on stage.
Soul Glo
After a performance like Virga's, I thought the bar was set for the evening; I didn't think it could get better, but I was so wrong.
All the way from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the four-piece walked out to a hum of white noise that transitioned into an operatic backing track before the screamo hardcore vocals cut through it and made the crowd absolutely erupt into a headbanging circle pit that stayed active the entirety of the set.
I thoroughly enjoyed Pierce Jordan (vocalist)'s duality on stage and stage presence, immersing himself in the crowd by standing on the monitors, taking a step back at times to do some funky track/synth elements, and coming back with metalcore screams. While Virga set the ambience, Soul Glo brought the energy.
Chat Pile
“Out on the beltway…”
I was immediately excited to see this band come to town, stylistically similar to one of my favorite bands of all time, Truck Violence. Chat Pile made massive waves of noise rock with a rip current of sludge metal that washed out over Englewood on Sunday night, after a set change soundtracked by purely classical jazz.
Hailing from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Chat Pile, touring as a four-piece, has been releasing music since 2019, with their most recent album "Who Loves the Sun" coming out on September 4th, also serving as the namesake of the tour. Made up of Raygun Busch (vocals), Luther Manhole (guitar), Stin (bass), and Cap’n Ron (drums).
Having never seen them live before, I was immediately convinced that Luther Manhole could be a chemistry professor, but instead of messing around with chemicals, he experiments with noisy guitar riffs. Raygun Busch’s outfit change was also noteworthy, starting the set in a mustard coloured t-shirt and, at some point during their first song “PEN I S MALL”, took off his shirt and continued the rest of the night in what can only be described as sweatpants but flavoured to be shorts.
The Gothic Theatre was electric, amped up by this transformation, singing along to every line and continuing to mosh and headbang, riding off of the energy from Soul Glo’s set. This fire was stoked even more by Raygun’s stage presence, which I think can only accurately be described as watching a barefoot, shirtless man be chaotically puppeted around and across the stage in sync with a noise rock soundtrack.
“Send my body to Arby’s”
