Photo Gallery: Total Abuse / Breathing Problem / Bath Consolidated / Throat Breach / Mentira at Awful House

Total Abuse

Total Abuse, one of the toughest Texas bands of the 21st century, returned to Kansas City on Monday night. The band's 20 minute set didn't inspire quite as much chaos as its 2014 gig at FOKL in KCK, but a handful of moshers danced and about 50  others looked on as the band did its thing. Growling guitars and pummeling drums ushered in song after song of hardcore masochism and not a soul in the room could stop it.

Following Total Abuse was a set from Breathing Problem, the experimental noise project of Emelia McKay and Total Abuse's Rusty Kelley. The pair began their set by using a small table full of sound equipment to forge ethereal soundscapes that could have doubled as a video game score. Soon after, however, those heavenly sounds gave way to McKay's whispered pleas, nightmarish screams, and a pounding electronic drum. The powerful and highly sensual set culminated in Kelley gripping McKay from behind and shoving the microphone in her face as she let out her final cries.

The evening's last set came courtesy of Bath Consolidated. After setting up her laptop, Noelle Johnson spent a majority of her time screaming her throat sore, quickly meandering around the Awful House floor, and resting her head on the PA speakers. A monstrous opening number sounded like 10 different metal songs chopped up and played at once, accompanied by an intense vocal performance from Johnson. Following a short lull, she ended the set with a furious rendition of the apocalyptic techno hellraiser "Procession" from her 2017 album "Milieu."

The first two sets of the evening came from two local acts on different ends of the loud rock spectrum. Mentira opened the show with an ambitious new track that created a Latin dance rhythm out of Tony Manganaro's toms and Ricardo Flores' guitar feedback. Throat Breach's set incorporated more blastbeats than the rest of the night's performers combined and proved to be the band's finest performance yet.

Full photo gallery here.