Puffs of smoke curl around the stage at the Brooklyn rock venue Warsaw; fuzzy sounds lull the audience into a hazy dream that is at once both soothing and cruel. Curves of elbows and shoulders poke in and out of the little exposed light on the stage. Sounds continue to layer upon each other until a thunder of noise emits through the speakers. More lights flicker on, experimenting in blue and red hues, staining the faces of the members of No Age.
Los Angeles natives Randy Randall and Dean Spunt created the noisy pop band, No Age, after the dissolution of their former punk band, Wives.
“Wives was a project that had a lot of aggression,” Randall said inside of the dining area at Warsaw before the concert.
“No Age is more of a hug, a fuzzy hug,” Randall continued. “It’s a love that has flaws and I think we embrace those flaws. A great tragedy in your life can bring about profound discovery of yourself and those bad points can bring about the more beautiful points. I think that’s what’s in our music.”
The murky textures created by No Age resemble My Bloody Valentine and Husker Du, but the major difference that stands between them and those bands is that the sounds are only coming from two people.
“I always feel more inspired when we are challenged. So when we try to make a sound of five people with two, it just makes us get more creative,” Spunt said.
On stage, Randall digs into the opening chords of “Boy Void,” the band’s most accessible song from their critically-acclaimed release, “Weirdo Rippers.” Spunt follows with a rippling drum beat so demanding that making it forces him to shift his slender frame upward with each hit. Throughout the set, No Age integrates a host of new songs from their upcoming album, “Nouns,” due out in May, which is met with applause and head bopping from the audience.
During the last song, Randall bangs his guitar against his microphone stand to capture a sound worthy of manipulating with his effects pedals. Once satisfied, he passes his guitar out into the audience. A fury of hands grab at the guitar creating jarring hisses while Randall sits on stage fiddling with the effects.
It’s a fuzzy hug indeed.
