Freeway Park make their long-anticipated Ball of Wax debut with “Paintings of Famous Satanists,” an expansive, extra-dirgey version of their brand of noisy, dissonant rock woven together with the prose-based (but never prosaic) verbal arts of vocalist Graham Isaac. The text recounts, in the present-tense, a visit to a bar (adorned with the title portraits). Nothing particularly ground-breaking occurs, but our narrator tells us what he sees and hears, and the thoughts that the settings inspire (Kind of like a post-Grunge Seattle Karl Ove Knausgård, if you will). The awkward intimacy of seeing a stranger’s bra strap is touched upon. Read on their own, there’s very little drama or intensity in the words, but the way they are delivered adds a level of energy and emotion that needs to be heard. The way he hollers “I’m not even using my loud voice. If I shouted, I could clear this fuckin’ room” puts a smile on my face every single time. Unlike your usual singy rock bands, there’s no direct rhythmic or melodic correlation between Graham’s vocals and what the band is doing, but it all works together, and the ten-plus minute running time just blazes by.
I am very excited to see this piece and others performed live by the band at the Ball of Wax 51 release show on Friday, March 9th.