It was good to be back at the MSU Union Ballroom. On a Tuesday evening in the middle of a stretch of unbelievable cold, I was pleasantly surprised to see how big the audience was. Taking into consideration that the Residence Hall Association didn’t even show the concert on their website (let alone do any real promotion) and the fact that the ballroom doesn’t have a bar, I’d say that it was a successful turnout.

At first, I thought it was odd that Wax On Radio was first on a three-band bill (four bands if you count the local opening act). But I had seen the band at Beat Kitchen in Chicago last November, so I knew that they were misplaced in the order.

WOR is a young band from the suburbs of Chicago. According to their web site, Mikey Russell (vocals/guitar) owns a turntable but no CD player and is fond of Camus’ The Stranger. Bob Buckstaff (guitar/keyboard) bears a strange resemblance to the German terrorists in the film Die Hard, with shoulder-length hair and bold facial features. The band, also comprised of Dustin Chabert (bass) and Sammy Del Real (drums) brought a passion to the stage fitting of the blood-red walls in the ballroom, which is alarming because they are relatively new to their craft. They have released one full-length album, titled Exposition, with cover art that recalls the broken statue on Metallica’s …And Justice For All. In addition, their song “The Devil” appeared on the soundtrack of Showtime’s Masters of Horror II, along with a bunch of incongruous thrash metal.

While the band prepared to play, Buckstaff stretched the strings on his hollow-body guitar – perhaps a sign that the instrument was in for a beating. Russell tuned his right-handed Telecaster, which had been restrung for his left-handed playing. As they started to perform, familiar sub-genre names like “space-,” prog-“ and “experimental-rock” came to mind. But what I quickly learned is that no such names will ever describe the catastrophic noise and intense explosions that occur when this band is on stage.

On “Time Will Bind Us to the Guilt of Commitment,” a tight back-and-forth guitar/bass arrangement eventually opened up to Russell wailing above crashing drums and searing guitars.

“Remembering” developed at a slower pace, starting with a mysterious guitar riff and then meandering through half a dozen interpretations of the original concept.

Album opener “Today I Became a Realist” was a precious moment in the show, at first led by Russell’s acoustic guitar and vocals, then growing into a cooperative pounding that played like a darker version of Led Zeppelin’s “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp.” The song closed with Buckstaff playing a haunting part on the Wurlitzer keyboard.

Other songs rounded out the set, like “When In Rome,” which carries an almost Californian feeling in it’s classic construction, and “The General of Medicine City,” an example of what the Mars Volta might sound like if they weren’t so arrogant. Russell’s voice cut through the air like a knife. How such a big noise comes from so small a person (he can’t be taller than 5’5”) escapes me. I think it’s a compliment to say that their music is inventive and creative, and yet WOR constantly sounds familiar, which is why all those sub-genre names popped into my head. My brain was trying to categorize them (a universal human tendency), but it proved largely impossible. The band reinvents styles of music that I thought were unchangeable. But within all the glorious noise remains a pop sensibility. Although many rock fans and musicians would take that as an offensive remark, I would suggest otherwise. What I mean is that their music grabs you, gets stuck in your head and evokes various pleasurable emotions. And the music is complex and unpredictable, but never creates rock fatigue because they always proceed to the next movement just in time. I got so involved in the moment that I forgot for a short while that, earlier that afternoon, my dentist told me I need a root canal. I left after Wax On Radio’s set (with half of the line-up still to play), hoping that the RHA will get their act together and schedule more shows of this caliber. Otherwise, we’ll all be left to our midterm exams, dental pains and winter survival tactics, with too few brilliant musical events to curb our cabin fever.