Chon @ Union Transfer with Covet, Tera Melos and Little Tybee.
Text and images by Rick Kauffman.
Chon released their newest LP, Homey, on Friday and celebrated with a a sold-out show at Union Transfer.
The stage was a tropical paradise of illuminated palm trees and pink-washed color, offering a fitting backdrop to the math rock quartet from San Diego. The band has evolved in short time from a heavy, post-hardcore instrumental group to a bright and shiny, jazz-influenced quartet that lays heavy on the grooves and oddly-timed polyrhythms with the drummer dropping tempos mid-measure.
They were supported by a stacked lineup of fellow math rockers in Covet, Tera Melos and Little Tybee.
Covet performed math-y, prog rock that drew hoots and hollers during the intricate and complex grooves. Yvette Young’s soft-sung vocals offered a wispy and ethereal texture to songs that reached a crescendo with slap-happy drum-and-bass grooves that were layered by tops taps and riffs and pitch harmonics.
Tera Melos began as a purely instrumental math rock group but they have adopted a more typical pop structure, with lead guitarist Nick Reinhart continuing his frenzied tapping of pedals between two boards and electronic machinery. At times, his guitar sounded like a dying robot; other times, it was like an electric saxophone. The flurry of slapping pedals, hopping back and forth from foot to foot while playing erratic and unconventional guitar licks elicited serious awe from a crowd that was baffled by his wizardry.
Little Tybee, from Atlanta, Georgia, featured an eclectic sextet of an eight-stringed guitar, electric bass, violin and viola and others, that has in the past utilized a massive arrangement of brass and woodwind instruments throughout their four albums. The openers featured a sound that continually expanded and expounded upon their particular brand of experimental, psychedelic indie rock.
JUMP: The Philly Music Project 
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