the scowl

I’ve been a Stars of the Lid fan for a while, now, and until last Friday they’d been high on the list of groups I’d never seen live whose music I love. I’d missed their Wordless Music show earlier this year, and — as a friend of mine in Seattle had described their music on said tour as amazing — didn’t want to miss this one. Adam Wiltzie opened the group’s set by implying that this would be the last Stars of the Lid show in New York for a while — bittersweet news at best. The music that followed expanded and twisted the pieces heard on their albums, and “December Hunting for Vegetarian Fuckface” closed the set by building the album version’s stately drone into something that accumulated a rawer, elemental power. It was stunning at its best, and I came close to buying a ticket for the night’s second show.