FACS played Deep Cuts – 4/10

Chicago trio FACS headlined a Thursday night heater in Medford with support from Landowner and Major Stars.

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Rising from the ashes of hypnotic post-punk outfit Disappears circa 2017, FACS are the current outlet through which former members Brian Case, Noah Leger and Jonathan Van Herik carry on their brand of minimalist, dare-I-say angular rock music. Disappears were a great band (great enough that ex-Sonic Youth percussionist Steve Shelley joined up for a spell), and FACS introduce some twists and turns to their sound that cast the new project as a natural evolution that’s just as compelling.

February’s Wish Defense – the band’s sixth LP and the last that the late, legendary producer Steve Albini worked on – delivers a concise and hard-hitting mission statement over its 30 minutes of elliptical jams. It was the main focus of a driving set on the Boston-area stop of the band’s spring tour, which saw the hair-whipping, metronomically-tight rhythm section of Leger and Van Herik meld to Case’s smoldering guitar tones and cryptic lyricism in arresting fashion. It was a set that made me lament only catching Disappears a pair of times back in the day, and that it’d taken me this long to link back up with FACS.

Kicking off the night, Greater Boston’s preeminent purveyors of psych-jam meltdowns Major Stars reached back into the catalog for a rare set sans-vocals, as singer (and sommelier) Noell Dorsey was overseas on wine business. The results were no less fiery and mind-bending than usual. And in the direct support slot, Holyoke’s Landowner rolled out their singular style of tightly-wound, clean-toned post-punk to round out a particularly strong triple-bill. Check out photos from all three sets below.