Saturday, July 31, 2010
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We Versus The Shark - First Show As Trio

by Casey DeHoedt
08.14.2008

It’s nearly 1:40. The threat of martial shutdown looms amongst the crowd at Little Kings. But none will be satisfied until We Versus the Shark gets a chance to sink their pearly teeth into the Popfest beast. By now the crowd has thinned considerably. Down to the wire, the stragglers and die-hards are starting to show their wear as We Versus makes haste to set up.

Its WVTS’s first show since the loss of guitarist Samantha Paulsen... The complicated nature of their music creates skepticism: how will this work as a trio?

Guitarist Luke Fields grates on the strings and without warning Jeff Tobias pushes into the crowd with an Earth shattering scream. It’s 1:40 and nothing is going to be held back in the name of noise ordinances or exhaustion. A girl in the front clutches her ears but remains unwilling – for the moment – to budge from her spot. Little Kings flashes the “Last Call” lights – a strange strobe light that bears no affect on the intensity WVTS had detonated.

Exploitation of space – as usual – is the theme for the band. Be it Fields flailing his torso at extreme angles in the multitude of possible directions, Tobias invading the crowd and climbing on available platforms or drummer Scott Smith ravaging his kit.

Like an alarm clock screaming unexpectedly in the a.m. the crowd is revived as some start the thrash about, caught up in the ferocity of Tobias’s face. The audio sensitive listener has been displaced by two movers and shakers who have saved it up for WVTS.

Smith continues to pulverize the drums as the music frenzies around various time signatures. Look at the crowd trying to find the beat as the “Shark” ventures into unchartered rhythmic waters.

Fields: “Are the cops here yet?” The crowd: “Keep going.” So they do.

Time: 2:20.

Status: Exhausted but satisfied (evidenced by a dimwitted smile).

Hearing ability: Nil. We Versus the Shark gets the prize for piercing the tympanic membrane.