Live Review: Protomartyr at Lincoln Hall 10/8

The room was obscured by haze from a dead-end smoke machine that truncated the light and swirled around the tense room like the mist rolling off the sea in the fictional town of Anacita — a place that singer Joe Casey visits again and again over the course of three albums. Oscillating between whiskey in a plastic cup, Budweiser and Miller High Life during their set, Protomartyr cast waves of nervous excitement over the crowd before solemnly taking the stage at 9:34 p.m. with bowed heads, black shirts and Casey in a full suit. Without one wasted word, they laid into nine out of 12 songs from their latest LP, Relatives in Descent. After chuckling at his own joke about keeping those who would throw tomatoes far from the stage, Casey launched into “The Chuckler,” a dry and witty commentary about the loneliness of daily life on the grind. Alex Leonard rolled the drums into submission, catching and releasing the beats to “Pontiac 87” and “Staring at Floors” while Greg Ahee and Scott Davidson took turns leading with precision on “What the Wall Said.” By the time they took the stage for a raucous encore of “Why Does it Shake” and “Scum, Rise!”, the entire band was red-faced, shaking and intent on engaging the audience to the point of delirious elation, slicing the earlier anticipatory haze with clarity of purpose and unmistakable intent. BY ERIN MALYSA