Snooper played Arts at the Armory – 7/18

Nashville phenoms Snooper played a wild set at Somerville’s Armory, supported by Holyoke post-punks Landowner.

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At 14 songs in 22 minutes, the debut LP from Nashville’s Snooper – last year’s pseudo-S/T Super Snooper – is an exercise in quirky, economical garage-punk that leaves an instant impression. The songs are bite-sized, awash in scuzzy sonics and bursting with manic energy – the kind of thing you immediately know will go off even harder on stage. A couple weeks back at the Armory, the five-piece delivered on that promise with a frenetic set augmented by comically oversized props, high jumps, coach’s whistles and a gigantic bug costume. If the set had a downside, it was only that a slightly smaller room than the cavernous Armory might’ve ratcheted up the craziness even further (a great fit for, say, a resurrected Great Scott sometime in the future…). But regardless, Snooper are a blast in any setting.

Holyoke’s Landowner opened things up and also impressed, channeling something like a post-modern Feelies sensibility with their rhythmic, clean-tone post-punk. Check out photos from both sets below.