- Mary Locke
Tyrants play tonight with Valkyrie Rodeo, Faces, and Painted Debris at Kenton Club (2025 N Kilpatrick). Details here.
Tyrants are a music writer’s worst nightmare: They’re impossible to pigeonhole. In the course of 30 seconds, the group schizophrenically oscillates between knuckle-dragging minimalism and brazen technicality. Their live show is like a DIY version of Cirque du Soleil—drummer Chris Lytsell annihilates a drum set consisting of only a snare and hi-hat, while bassist Ted Spas bounces around in an irrepressible bout of mania, as if he’s channeling the ire and anxiety of an entire generation of misunderstood punks.
There’s no shortage of weird, heavy bands in Portland, but Tyrants’ weirdness, at its essence, owes more to OG freaks like Devo and Captain Beefheart than the rigid, angular eccentricity of ’90s post-hardcore, the signpost-of-the-week for modern punk bands. Tyrants make fucked-up music without even trying.
The group’s latest cassette, Dark Match, reflects their live performance in a way no previous release has, for the obvious reason that it’s their first official physical album with guitarist Nate Gilds. “We were going to do an LP, but those things are prohibitively expensive, and the vinyl industry is clogged with plants putting out the Frozen soundtrack,” says Spas.