The Messthetics are gems. What else can you say? These are guys with a profound love for music and that love pours through in every note & beat they play. I, like many, found the Messthetics through Fugazi & my refusal to accept that something so powerful as Fugazi could ever willingly retire itself. Welp, it hasn’t. The spirit of Fugazi is alive & well & maturing (hopefully along with its fans). Brendan and Joe, inarguably one of the all-time great rhythm sections for folks such as myself (read: a little isolated, a little angry, a little confused, a little drawn to those things which, when said aloud, jar us out of the polite conventions just long enough to realize this whole thing taking place around us really IS a little comic, a little absurd, and heavier than it should be, but there’s nothing to do about that but pick up what you can carry and carry it as far as you can in the direction opposite where everyone else seems to be going). This is not a joke with a punchline. And these are guys who understand that. So they ain’t waiting for the big laugh at the end. Joe and Brendan have been communicating with one another for so long that the connection is palpably psychic—trading beat for bass line, rhythm for note, in the inimitable language of spiritual twins. And the same can be said for Anthony and James. Coming from the Fugazi side of the spectrum, I hadn’t previously witnessed the conversations between Anthony and James. What a shame that is for me cuz I imagine I’ve missed a great deal up until now. I won’t make the same mistake in the future. These two are having the conversations the rest of us shoulda been having all along. Entirely in notes, so with less risk for misinterpretation. Just what an absolutely beautiful four piece these folks make. The conversations between Anthony and James intermingle seamlessly with the conversations between Joe & Brendan & the whole goddamned beautiful thing just sings. “You’re not wrong & you’re not alone” is all I could really make out. But then again, that’s also I was looking to pick out. You’ll hear something different if you need to. That’s the beauty of music. And these guys are willing to share as much of it as you’re willing to hear. Perfect. Great guys, great music. Hoping they officially make themselves a four piece & keep doing this for some time.