In a sense, all live music is performance art. Merely watching someone nail or flail their own songs can evoke feelings which run the full gamut from thrilling and exciting to empty or embarrassing. I spend a lot of my time around live music —most of my weekends are centered around experiencing as much of it as possible. And any other day I’m probably thinking about it (or editing show photos). I believe it to be one of the most important and tangible expressions we are capable of.
But there’s a short list of artists I’ve seen over the years that have iterated greatly on what performance art can be. One artist on that short list, for me at least, is Tricky Youth.
This was my second time seeing Tricky Youth perform, their third time in Knoxville. Off hand, I can’t tell you what I was doing the night of their first show here, so obviously it wasn’t very important, but I missed it (fomo). You can, however, check out their performance I caught a year ago right here:
This performance was very different from their previous outing here, with new music to play on tour, new visuals. The new songs were noisier and catchier. The whole performance felt more raw and less scripted, as there was no pre-recorded voiceover to explain what was happening, but Tricky led us along through their ritual with their signature calm demeanor between songs.
Both times I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Tricky Youth perform, I’ve left with a renewed sense of creativity and hope. To some, the visuals and sounds could come across as dark or grating, but I don’t see these attributes as negatives. The full performance, from the story about Knoxville in the beginning to the poem at the end is inundated with this industrial soundscape of pedals and feedback and electric buzz, intercut with real capital-R capital-M Rock Music and darkwave-esque drum machines.
Something I will always hold fast to is the idea that many of the things popularly deemed ugly have the ability to hold more beauty than anything unchallenging. I have been attending local shows for over 10 years now and the only ugly things I have ever heard or seen have been from people who aren’t challenging themselves either with their own craft or their tastes or their morals.
This is all to say Tricky Youth is truly one of my favorite artists I’ve ever seen live (and I’ve seen a couple hundred bands this year alone!).
On tour with Tricky was Whit3corset, with I and Calla Burke being local support, though, to me, Whit3corset is just as much a Knoxville artist as a Memphis artist. It was a little bittersweet seeing Emily of Whit3corset perform for the last time, but she finished off her set with a wonderful taste of what may be in store for the future —an acoustic, midwest-emo-inspired outing that was beautifully written and performed. A hard diversion from her digital hardcore norms, surely, but a sound that felt like home for her voice.
Calla Burke’s set for this show was a beautiful blend of sites and sounds. Footage of perpetual energy devices overlayed with the lyrics to her songs played as a wash of plucky and vibrant synthesizer music filled the room. Calla has performed in multiple bands and other solo projects that have been featured on this blog, but this was the first Calla Burke as Calla burke set I’ve ever seen and It was sonically and visually brilliant.
Anyways, check out the photos and videos above and below and go see a band this weekend!
WHIT3CORSET
TRICKY YOUTH
CALLA BURKE
DOZIBRION
Well, that’s it for this week! I hope you enjoyed the music and photos! If you’re looking for found media, please check out my page on Archive.org for the full list of digitized media. If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message right here or drop a comment below. If you haven’t already, please check out the suggested posts below! or any of my other previous posts here. Thanks so much for checking out this week’s edition of Diptych!
See you soon!
—Forrest
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