Diandra Reviews It All

If there was one thing that fascinated me about Susto’s Brooklyn Bowl performance is that they played their country-rock like they were Nirvana or some grunge-punk legend chording their discontent like guitar strings were also lassos for pain. Led by the rock n’ roll rasp of lead vocalist, Justin Osborne, the band lived up to their Latin-American name Susto which means “scare” or “panic attack. With songs all about the fears we hold and the fears that hold us, their new album, And I’m Fine Today, amped up the country crooning crowd in the same way one would see at a heavy metal concert.

It is always strange but humbling to receive an unexpected response. Sometimes, they are surprisingly good, and other times they are unexpectedly bad, but the point is they were different than imagined. The North Charleston band played tracks like, “Cosmic Cowboy”, “Hard Drugs”, and “Gay In The South” from their ironically titled And I’m Fine Today; an album all about not feeling too good but acting as such. Just from the song titles you can tell their aim is to target the stories and sentiments of life as an outcast; where your spiritual best can be crushed by the social worst. Osborne has a voice that drips pain like a faucet drips water; no matter how tightly he turns his voice it will always drizzle some amount of hurt. Yet, probably, the most heavy-rock quality of this country-rock band is the random yelps and yells that Osborne will spew when he feels the music too much. It was those moments that drove the crowd wild because, frankly, they could not stop screaming, as well. Susto was striking every feeling of dismay the crowd has ever held, and transforming it into sonic, blissful delirium. Thus, when Osborne would step from the mic as him and his fellow bandmates keeled to the music and riffs they were making, I felt like I was in an emotional celebration. There we all were, the social outcasts, giving into a music style that can feel pretty exclusive and possessed by its fan-base.

Country music is a lucrative scene, in part, because country music-lovers can be fiercely protective and cut-throat in who embodies this genre’s culture and sonic-world. Now, I love country music, but, unfortunately, there are not too many songs playing to thr most alienated people of society like, LGBT members. Moreover, it is not a notorious genre for playing to the quiet, depressing chaoses that stir in people, like grunge or punk. Thus, Susto’s Nirvana vibe with country-rock sensibilities made them refreshing, spontaneous, and, most-importantly, a good concert to see. For More Information Susto Click Here.