Orlando, FL – With no singalong choruses or frontman to hype the crowd, mostly instrumental music takes a special something to keep an audience’s attention —- and Polyphia’s got it.
The quartet proved as much in Orlando on a tour stop promoting their latest album Remember That You Will Die. Two tracks from the album started the show, with “Genesis” transitioning to “Neurotica.”
Classifying Polyphia’s sound begins with their name, which is rooted in “polyphonics” or “music whose texture is defined by the interweaving of several melodic lines.” (No one seems to agree if it’s pronounced poly-phee-a or puh-lif-ea.) That broad description is reflected in critics’ feeble attempts to slap a genre on Polyphia, with everything from progressive rock to math rock to instrumental hip hop to metalcore all applying at some point.
Bottom line: it sounds good in your speakers and it looks amazing when performed. The “interweaving of several melodic lines” is most noticeable with the twin attacks of guitarists Tim Henson and Scott LePage. Henson grabs your eye first with a full throat tattoo and anime hair. LePage occupied the other half of the stage, flipping his long hair as his fingers moved at lightning speed across the fretboard.
The bedrock of the group though is the rhythm section, which produces just as intricate if more subdued melodies. Clay Gober supplied groovy bass lines to keep the high-flying riffs tethered to earth, while drummer Clay Aeschliman found unique ways to keep tempo and fill the space with complicated fills.
The crowd that packed the floor of The Plaza Live ate it up, cheering with each new song that emerged. LePage acted as the de facto emcee, stirring up the audience and trading words while the rest of the band tuned and drank water.
Polyphia’s riffs and solos are as unique as any opening lines of a song, and LePage proved as much by playing a call and response game with his guitar. LePage started the song then the audience faithfully replicated the next few bars with “doos-doos” and “dah-dahs.”
That, in this writer’s opinion, was just as impressive a testament to Polyphia’s star power and talent than anything displayed in song.
Setlist:
- Genesis
- Neurotica
- O.D.
- Goose
- 40oz
- Icronic
- Champagne
- All Falls Apart
- Drown
- Worst
- Reverie
- The Audacity
- Playing God
Encore:
- G.O.A.T.
- 96 Quite Bitter Beings (CKY cover)
- Euphoria
Show Date: March 29, 2023
