(a) setlist

1. The World Is Your Hotel
2. Mr. Fish
3. Baby Boy
4. The Browns
5. Special Snowflakes
6. Grunt Like a Pig
7. Pets
8. Appendicitis
9. #2 Hit Single

(b) highlights

• love the hell out of Baby’s All Right – cute, intimate, solid venue
• this hilarious moment of my friend spending the whole night falling in love with a dude who was dramatically leaning up against the prototypical Brooklyn exposed-brick wall…who turned out to be the lead singer of PILE
• going to a show and seeing a band I literally know nothing about and having a great time

(c) lowlights

• 15-year-olds wearing backpacks and unnecessarily moshing…actually, that was funny

(d) overall thoughts

I ended up at this show by accident, which is always kind of great. A friend of mine was BFF’s with the opening act – a solid dude named Yaz who’s into the whole 70’s psychedelic rock ‘n’ roll shindig and he was cool. Turned out, he had been playing guitar in PILE for a tour or two, so we stuck around for them. They’re Boston-based, which sort of comes through in their performance, but I’m pretty sure that’s 70% based on their beards, outfits, and one of them vaguely saying, “So…we’re from New England.” They were post-hardcore punkish – whatever that means – but, in a strange way, they reminded me of a bunch of pseudo-emo kids who were really into the slower, smarter Blink 182 songs (whichever ones those are) and maybe the sadder Offspring songs (again, do those exist?? somehow, I feel like they do).

The show felt small and intimate in a way that you consciously think, “I’m seeing something special that no one else really knows about right now…and that’s nice.” There’s passion and real emotion behind the occasionally erratic guitar and always erratic drums, and I would definitely aim to catch these guys again. Yeah, you can jump around and connect with the punk-ish roots, or you can directly connect to the emotion behind those songs – there’s a bit for everyone when it comes to PILE.

Bottom line: They’re not the second coming of Nirvana or anything, but PILE’s got the guitar chops, rock ‘n’ roll attitude, and sad grunge-y undertone of real heart to reel you in.

Note: I actually took many more pictures than this – I vividly remember most of them, but I think my computer ate them. This is somehow most fitting for this show. Even more of a secret now.