Adult. @ The Grog Shop, Cleveland 12.03.05

Well, Adult.'s live performance turned out to be much like their new CD; loud, shrill, and just not the same as it was a few years back when they visited this venue. I'm not saying bands can't grow and change...I just don't think this new sound is working for them. Skewed heavily toward the new material, every song in the set blurred together into one long noise with even brief glimpses of older material like Pressure Suit losing almost all personality and drowning in the mix. Every song had me debating leaving early in disappointment although I ultimately stayed for the whole set. I kept hoping they'd throw us a bone, lose the guitar-heavy new style for a few songs, and give us some of the older blippy electronic sound I loved last time...but it just never materialized.

Unexpectedly, the night was redeemed by the opening acts. Cleveland locals 20goto10 and Berlin native Masha Qrella were top notch and both acts have been added to my CD collection as a result. Detroit's Genders were interesting but provided something more like gimmicky performance art than a musical performance. It was kind of fun but I suspect it doesn't translate well to CD. Tamion 12 Inch's set at the previous Adult. Grog Shop appearance was much the same; weird fun, but their CD was basically terrible.