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The Soft Moon @ Holocene 12/18/2012

The Soft Moon @ Holocene 12/18/2012

Upon taking the stage, The Soft Moon wasted no time delivering their dark post-punk project from Oakland’s Luis Vasquez—with each musician in seemingly tip-top shape. The pummeling bass lines from Justin Anastasi and the precision of percussionist Keven Tecon gave Vasquez the perfect background to the first song of the evening, “Die Life”, from their latest album on Captured Tracks. Vasquez introduced the band, “We’re The Soft Moon. Hello Portland.” And then jokingly added, “This is our last song.”

The trio tore through cuts from all three of their releases: 2010’s self-titled debut (my personal favorite, check out “When It’s Over” live from Room 205), last years Total Decay EP, and of course Zeros. Holocene provided a perfectly intimate setting along with the band’s black-and-white backdrop and psychedelic strobes projecting over them. It’s everything you want from the 80s and 90s shoegaze movement with a modern twist.

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If you haven’t had a chance to catch The Soft Moon live, I highly recommend doing so. Their shows are full of primal energy and your body won’t know how to do anything but move along with the thunderous explosion in your sonically-induced state of bliss. The only thing that might distract you from doing so is Vasquez charmingly intense stage presence as he moves from shredding on his guitar to tweaking distortion knobs on his synth.

Words by Wendy Worzalla
Photos by Michael Herman