Spike Hellis at The Casbah

Industrial music isn't supposed to be tender, and then the rhythm hits and your shoulders are moving before your brain catches up. Spike Hellis makes coldwave that's both -- distorted vocals, synths built from cold, the kind of groove that's visceral and somehow gentle underneath. They've been at it since 2019, mostly out of LA, mostly for people who already know what coldwave is and don't need it explained. The Casbah on a Saturday opens August with it: two-hundred capacity, the bar that's been the bar for thirty-five years, the crowd in mesh and leather and patches and steel-toes. Bring the friend whose closet is entirely black. Doors at eight, openers at eight-thirty, Spike Hellis around ten. Twenty dollars at the door. Saturday in San Diego -- the room is the kind of crowd that's spent years following labels nobody else has heard of, here because someone in their feed said the right thing about it.