Concert review: Bit Brigade at The Grey Eagle
YouTube’s most-watched video of someone playing through Mega Man 2, a classic action platformer for the Nintendo Entertainment System, has around 1.4 million views. A miniscule fraction of that number crowded into The Grey Eagle on March 15 to watch Noah McCarthy perform the same feat as part of Bit Brigade.
In a way, that difference in scale is central to the argument the Athens, Ga.-based group has been making for the past two decades. Bit Brigade’s bit, as briskly summarized by bassist Luke Fields in a pre-set monologue, is that McCarthy blasts through vintage video games while a math-rock quartet covers the soundtracks “super loud and fast” in real-time accompaniment.
It’s part silent movie orchestra, part virtual tightrope act. And as a package, its magic comes from the very fact of being performed live — something that happens best in front of a few hundred people in a crowded room, not in front of millions online. As Fields told Engadget in 2018: "We're a rock band. You need to come see us play a rock show."
McCarthy is not invincible; his little blue hero does take a few lasers and sawblades from Dr. Wily’s evil robots in Mega Man. His backing band has to change up riffs on a dime as the action moves between levels and boss fights. There is potential for things to go wrong at every turn, unlike in a YouTube speedrun that’s been carefully edited and tweaked for virality.
But, at least at The Grey Eagle, nothing did go wrong. Drummer Mike Albanese muscled the band through onscreen cues at breakneck pace while guitarists Jace Bartet and Bryant Williamson traded noodly rhythm parts with soaring leads. Fields brought a fluid groove to challenging arpeggiated baselines originally written for an 8-bit audio processor. And McCarthy finished his runs without losing a life.
Highlights included the galloping rush of “Dr. Wily’s Castle” from Mega Man and the melodic heroism of “The Moon” from DuckTales, which the band also performed in its entirety. It’s also worth noting the jaw-dropping runthrough of the platform puzzler Marble Madness McCarthy performed sans backing musicians to kick off the show.
Opening for Bit Brigade was The Cartridge Family, which unfortunately appears to have no online presence. (If you’re reading this, get in touch!) The quartet took on a broad range of video game covers, armed with an enviable collection of synthesizers.
That keyboard-heavy approach worked best on tracks like “Aquatic Ambiance” from Donkey Kong Country, where listeners could appreciate the group’s attentive design of lush synth pads. The menacing waves of the “Ghost House Theme” from Super Mario World also took on new life when bulked out by twin Moog Matriarchs.
Wednesday’s show marked the second time in a year Bit Brigade has come to The Grey Eagle. And perhaps a little bit of the Asheville spirit has rubbed off in Fields’ stage banter.
“Scrooge McDuck is a colonizer!” he exclaimed to a roar of audience laughter, after the band had finished its DuckTales run. “He gets off a plane in the Amazon, stomps on a snake and takes a blood diamond!”
(Photo by Mike White)
