Live Review: Chat Pile at LPR (2024/11/16)

w/ special guests Mamaleek and Traindodge

Event Details:

• Venue: Le Poisson Rouge (Manhattan)

• Ticket Price: $32.96

Music has always been an escape for me. As I’ve said before, the best music evokes some kind of emotion and I can’t think of a band that captures my current range of emotions better than Chat Pile. The best way I can describe the foursome from Oklahoma is a demonic Nirvana meets shoegaze-inspired noise rock. Their music may be simple at the surface level but it is profound in so many ways. The sound is big and the message behind the lyrics is even bigger. They perfectly capture the bubbling societal angst stemming from the obvious issues we refuse to acknowledge.

Since seeing them over the summer at Outline Fest they have released my personal favorite album of the year, Cool World, which has received an overwhelmingly positive response from the music community. The potential for this band was clear to me the first time I heard them and I couldn’t be more thrilled for their budding success.

The opening bands have been rotating for this tour and we got Traindodge and Mamaleek for the NYC show. Traindodge has been around since the late 90s but I had never hear of them before and when they came on stage I was like, “who the heck are these old dudes?” Those old dudes rocked out! Their sound was more on the side of earlier post-hardcore bands with some cool jazzy progressive sections that added a nice balance. One of the better opening bands I’ve seen this year and a perfect band to set the tempo for the evening.

The next band was Mamaleek and they were pretty wild. Their music is very avant-garde, mixing everything from Eastern inspirations, black metal, psychedelia, jazz to noise rock. On top of their experimental sound, their stage presence was engaging, comedic and maintained an air of mystery as they all wore various balaclava style face masks. The most recent album, Vida Blues, was a nice introduction to them but I think their live set elevated my opinion of them even more. You could really appreciate the details and dynamics of their music so much more. Both performances by Traindodge and Mamaleek reminded me of how many amazing bands are out there that I know little-to-nothing about. I guess it’s a blessing and a curse in one’s never ending musical journey.

Similar to their music, Chat Pile sets are raw, aggressive and just the right amount of chaos. The band doesn’t write a setlist beforehand and just wings it as they go. At one point they were deciding what song to play next when someone yelled out “Slaughterhouse”, they shrugged and said, “let’s play Slaughterhouse.” I’m sure they have a good idea of which songs from the new album they want to play to help promote the release but the fluidity of the set is rare and refreshing. You almost feel like the show is being curated based on the energy they are receiving from the crowd that night.

They had some technical difficulties with the bass connection several times throughout the set but I think they recovered from it well each time. During moments like those, it’s clear this band has put in the work and their connection remains tight when faced with challenges. I think lead singer Raygun also does a good job of keeping things natural with his banter during songs, showing off his insane knowledge of film. I’m curious if there is a movie the guy hasn’t seen.

The set was about 15 songs and they delivered an absolute gem. The crowd was going crazy the whole time but especially towards the end when they played “Dallas Beltway” and the encore, “Rainbow Meat”. The new songs were just as good, if not better, live and the tone was just as menacing as I remembered it being from the last show. Such an incredible band and I truly believe they will go down as one of the best of their era.

Cheers and keep rocking!