PERFECT PUSSY at Smiling Buddha, Tuesday, December 8. Rating: NNN
You can count on Perfect Pussy to put on a riveting show: frontwoman Meredith Graves’s strong, grounded presence is hard to look away from and is matched by shredded vocals and rapid-fire lyrics fighting to rip through the dissonant, anxious dirges churned out by her four bandmates.
The Syracuse noise-hardcore outfit, with Ali Donohue now replacing Greg Ambler on bass, gave the crowd at a sold-out Smiling Buddha a bunch of new songs during their 30-minute set (a length about twice as long as previous ones), including standouts Joy and The Women. In The Women, Graves did a super-cool calm, spoken bit near the start that locked snugly into the band’s groove before the song swelled out in several directions. It felt refreshingly relaxed and surprising, and got a huge crowd reaction.
Though intense and intermittently explosive, inspiring a mosh-pit jostle for most of the half hour, the set had a halting pace and ended with a lengthy, anticlimactic instrumental outro, Graves silent, that left the crowd confused as to whether things were really over. No encore to be had.
carlag@nowtoronto.com | @carlagillis
