Please note: This show will feature a few additional health and safety requirements at the request of the bands — masks will be required when not actively eating/drinking, and getting on stage is prohibited. This is IN ADDITION to our existing policies. Please join us in maintaining a safe and welcoming environment for our performers, kay?
X-RAY ARCADE PRESENTS
LIVE MUSIC / ALL AGES
$15 ADV / $17 DAY-OF
6:30 DOORS / 7:30 MUSIC
OFF WITH THEIR HEADS
Facebook | Bandcamp
Off With Their Heads’ new album, Be Good, distinguishes itself from the rest of the band’s catalog with one very unique characteristic: It’s actually good. Frontman Ryan Young thinks so, anyway. “It’s the first record I’ve ever made that I like,” laughs Young. “Because there was no reason to make it anything other than what I wanted it to be.” The band has been relatively quiet over the last few years, largely because Young was tending to an ill family member who ultimately passed away last year. But through mourning came inspiration. “She was a photographer, and at the wake were all these photos she took,” he remembers. One of those photos struck him immediately. It shows a Mennonite family enjoying a sunny day at the beach while an ominous cooling tower looms in the background. “I said: That’s gonna be the cover of the album that doesn’t exist yet.” That photo captures the spirit of Be Good. While all of Off With Their Heads’ previous work shares a common thread of being rooted in Young’s fatalistic view of the world, Be Good at least allows a tiny glimmer of hope to peek through.
CANADIAN RIFLE
Facebook | Bandcamp
Canadian Rifle plays urgent and melodic, but heavy music that oozes both confidence and desperation at the same time. It sounds like a runaway freight train that could derail at any time, but somehow manages to stay roughly on the tracks. The lyrical content is somewhat abstract, touching on the bleakness of shallow human interaction, hanging on by a self-inflicted thread, running on fumes, and trying to move forward from mistakes and frames of mind that carry the behavior of skirting the edge that most would more than likely not venture into.
CHINESE TELEPHONES
Facebook
Chinese Telephones are a pop-punk band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They started in 2004 and have five releases out, including a split 12" with the Potential Johns and a 2007 self-titled LP/CD. They have been featured in Maximumrocknroll, Razorcake, Punk Planet, and the webcomic Nothing Nice To Say.
