Hard rock, low lights at the Flat Iron

A single,
small, gothic-style chandelier dangled from the ceiling above Flat Iron’s stage
while three sound bafflers made from wooden blocks hung on the walls on the
other side of the room.

Below the
low-lit chandelier, Solar Halos’ lead vocalist and guitarist Nora Rodgers sang
the first few notes of the band’s opening song, her voice alternating between a
natural pitch and high falsetto, sounding a bit like Dolores O’Riordan of the
Cranberries.

Each
strum of the guitars sent a wave of vibrations through the room as the pace of
the music continued to build. As the musicians carried on playing, the haunting
metal notes from the instruments transformed the atmosphere into a supernatural
world.

Last
Friday, the Flat Iron music bar in Greensboro hosted three diverse punk rock
bands: Totally Slow, Night Sweats and Solar Halos.

Tight beams
of light shot down onto the stage as the band progressed until they were slowly
enveloped by its brightness, evoking a sense of eeriness in the air.

Surrounding
the band stood an array different faces, from young to middle-aged. The only
other source of illumination in this dimly lit bar were the flashes of light coming
from people snapping pictures and videos on their phones.

Solar
Halos is a heavy rock band organized in Chapel Hill back in 2012, but made
their debut in 2014 with their self-titled album.

After the
show, Rodgers explained the band’s enigmatic inspiration behind their songs.

“It’s a mystery,” she said. “It’s a buildup of your whole life, of things that you’ve listened to. Music influences you. How you’re feeling on that day…. You can’t really put your finger on what that inspiration is.”

The third
act of the night began with the banging of the drums echoing throughout the small
establishment followed by the sounds of the electric guitar resonating in the
room. Totally Slow, a Greensboro-based band brought a more emotional feel to
the punk rock group through the power of Scott Hicks’ voice.

To one
side of the stage danced a young woman dressed in all black with fishnet
stockings and combat boots. She cupped her hands together over her mouth and
called out to the band to request their song, “Other People” off the band’s
album called Imperium.

Hicks spoke
afterwards about his experience in the field of music.

“I have
always operated at this level,” he said, “like sort of a DIY, punk-rock level.
It was never in my designs to be in the industry or to make money. This is in
me — I have to get it out.”

In
between, Night Sweats gave a fired-up and rage-filled performance, setting a
hard and fast pace to emphasize the meaning of their song, “Fuck the Party.”
Lead singer and former drummer Mike Sileno grabbed the mic and began screaming
the lyrics to express the song’s message.

“We’re disrupters,” Sileno
screamed. “We’re disrupting/ all your best laid plans/ all of your top paid
scams/ all of your fun and games/ all of your scapegoat blame….”

Sileno re-laid
the details of how the band was formed after the results of the 2016 presidential
election.

“I was fired up and posted on Facebook that I wanted to start something,” he said.  “That was why we wanted to do something fast and hard — to match what we were going for to complement the lyrics.” 

As the
bands began packing up their equipment after a long night of performing, an lone
member in the audience commented on the three different acts that they had seen
that evening.

“They have a message like the hard-core bands from back in the day used to have,” she said. “They were not just playing music for fun, fame or fortune-but being purposeful about it.”

Find the Flat Iron’s music schedule on Facebook.