Recommended Concerts: The Messthetics with Hher and S/heep (July 18)

The Messthetics effectively disprove a couple of musical tropes. The Washington, D.C. trio offers solid evidence that a) quasi supergroups are not boring, and b) neither are instrumental Math/Post Rock bands.

On the supergroup front, The Messthetics consists of some fairly potent names from the D.C. scene: drummer Brendan Canty and bassist Joe Lally are best known as the rhythm section from Fugazi, which has been on indefinite hiatus for the past 15 years. The band is rounded out by guitarist Anthony Pirog, renowned for his Jazz work as well as his Stoner/Doom outfit Skysaw, which also includes Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and multi-instrumentalist Mike Reina.

During Fugazi’s long, dark teatime, Canty started his Trixie film production company and created the “Burn to Shine” music video series, featuring bands playing a single song live in a house slated for demolition. He also helped create Wilco’s tour film Ashes of American Flags and Eddie Vedder’s solo DVD Water on the Road and became an active producer while working on side projects like Garland of Hours and Deathfix. Lally has maintained a solid solo career, releasing three albums under his own name, the last in 2011, while joining a variety of bands including Decahedron and Ataxia (with former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante) and serving as touring bassist for a variety of artists. Pirog has fronted a number of duo, trio and sextet Jazz configurations.

The power and appeal of The Messthetics is the well documented chemistry between Lally and Canty, whose effervescent groove was Fugazi’s swinging heartbeat, and Pirog’s imaginative approach to synthesizing his various influences and directions, where he combines his cerebral Jazz intuition with his thunderous riffmongering.

As a trio, the group has no interest in Post Hardcore displays of shred mastery, instead committing to creating a pummeling and yet still nuanced pas de trois among its talented players. The Messthetics’ self-titled debut album was recorded on the floor of Canty’s practice space with minimal overdubs and was released in March on Dischord Records (the indie imprint co-founded by Fugazi bandmate Ian MacKaye back in 1980) to almost universal praise.