When I walked out of One Eyed Jacks at 2 a.m. Sunday morning, I was soaked with sweat, I had fresh bruises from being thrashed around in a large mosh pit and I had shards of broken bottles lodged in my shoe. My ears were ringing and my legs were weak as I walked down the crowded Toulouse St.
Who could have left me in such a state? Well, the answer is quite clear.
Ty Segall did this to me by playing one of the loudest, most powerful performances I’ve ever seen. And I loved every minute of it.
The show kicked off around 10:30 with a performance from New Orleans rock band Babes, who gave an energetic performance to say the least. Its high speed, high thrills playing was more than enough to get the audience moshing, and the band was ultimately well-received by the crowd.
Following Babes was psychedelic rock band Wand, originally from Los Angeles. Its gloomy, space-rock set was the perfect opener for an act like Ty Segall. With songs from its debut album, “Ganglion Reef,” such as “Clearer” and “Fire on the Mountain,” Wand was able to set the psychedelic landscape the crowd desired.
Ty Segall took the stage close to midnight to uproarious applause from the audience, opening with the title track from his new album “Manipulator.” Segall was joined by his band of close friends, which consists of bassist Mikal Cronin, guitarist Charles Moothart and drummer Emily Rose Epstein.
Segall followed up with “It’s Over,” an aggressive sonic beast of a song that was sure to wake up anyone who wasn’t throwing themselves around the room in a mosh pit that seemed to span the entire venue.
The best song of the night was undoubtedly “Feel,” which is also arguably the best rock song of the year. Segall’s performance was so raw and aggressive that I thought the audience was about to riot and tear the venue down.
For the second half of his performance, Segall played songs from his entire repertoire as an artist, songs such as “You’re the Doctor,” “Imaginary Person” and “Oh Mary” were welcome additions to the set.
My only gripe with Segall’s performance was that he did not focus enough on his older works. The majority of his set seemed too heavily focused on “Manipulator” and because of this, a few of Segall’s most popular tracks were not included. Songs such as “Girlfriend” and “Finger” were missing from the set list.
There were also a few fan favorite songs missing—throughout the night I could hear fans calling for “I wear black” and Segall’s infamous cover of Bad Company’s “Feel Like Making Love.”
Regardless of this very minor complaint, Ty Segall gave a performance that needed to be seen to be believed. The sound was raw, the music was powerful and the fans lost their minds to both.