Back in 2005 when Seattle-based quartet These Arms Are Snakes unleashed Oxeneers or The Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home onto the unsuspecting college radio airwaves, the executive staff at our college radio station came up with a drunken continuum, with “tipsy” on one end and “These Arms Are Snakes” at the other. Reason being, their live show provided a rather impressive interpretation of their high-energy studio recordings, but singer Steve Snere’s antics (which included standing on the monitors and wrapping the microphone cord around his neck) were overshadowed with a sense of impending doom. The guy could barely stand up as it was. It was hard not to think, “This guy is going to die. He’s going to die here, onstage, and I’m going to be here watching as he does.”
These days, Snere still stands on equipment and crowdsurfs with regularity, but he appears to have better motor control — leaving far fewer fans shocked and sickened, staring up from the pulsing pit. But even sober, Snere still registers a growl that’s only barely intelligible through the vocoder. Nevertheless, everyone in the front seemed to be a dedicated TAAS fan, singing along to all the words as bodies slammed into one another. When The Coathangers’ Julia Kugel tossed a beer can at the band (as a sign of affection, she told me), the crowd responded with boos: either a sign of fans dedication or the genteel nature of D.C.’s scene.
Beyond the crowd-feeding raging antics, the broader appeal of These Arms Are Snakes can be attributed to the band’s considerable prowess. All three of the albums the band draws from for their set contribute to a patterned brilliance to their madness, so at no point is the music reduced to sheer noise. Ryan Frederiksen’s guitar riffs won over both the punks hungry for aggression and the people standing safely to the side who marveled at their complexity. This was especially apparent during the cuts that they played from last year’s Tail Swallower and Dove. These songs prove that it’s possible to inspire a sweaty raucous mess while still placating the more technically minded people in the audience.
