Collapsing Scenery at the Pyramid Club

Reggie Debris

Since the early 2000s, New York-based Don Devore has played in many underground bands, including punk rockers the Icarus Line, indie guitar band the Lilys, rockers Amazing Baby, theatrical band Ink & Dagger, and electronic group Historics; he is also a curator for Brooklyn arts space Trans Pecos. Austin native and Los Angeles resident Reggie Debris doubles as Mickey Madden, bassist for Maroon 5. Devore and Debris grew up on hardcore punk music.  They met in Los Angeles but reconnected in London while each was touring. The two musicians started a new band, Collapsing Scenery, with a goal of playing electronic music without a computer, sonically driven by analog electronics and political lyrics. In 2013, De Vore and Debris established Collapsing Scenery when they collaborated on a video installation in New York City. This led to a month of music and visual programming called Rebuild Babylon, which then evolved into a travelling residency series. Collapsing Scenery finalized its mission performing in warehouses and basements, periodically recording songs that they matched with avant garde videos.

Collapsing Scenery returned to the Pyramid Club tonight and Debris as vocalist and Devore as multi-instrumentalist, along with drummer Chris Colley, created abrasive, thick, experimental music that thrashed and crashed to a danceable rhythm. Rough-hewn, noisy and unfiltered soundscapes pulsed through vintage machinery on amplifiers normally reserved for guitars, as pounding beats propelled strangely melodic and haunting vocals that charged forth aggressively. Industrial, techno, hip hop, dub and hardcore punk melted into the big, loud and stirring wall of sound. The result was invigorating music that will enthrall and mesmerize the gothic, darkwave and industrial underground.

Visit Collapsing Scenery at www.collapsingscenery.com.