Concert Review: Machine Girl Exudes its "Hidden Power" at Emo's
Supported by Kill Alters and Snõõper, Machine Girl captivated Emo’s on Nov. 14 with a fusion of dark ambient sounds, punk chants, and electric notes, leaving the Austin crowd feeling anything but “Half Asleep.”
Written by Julianna Riccioli
Photo courtesy of Jen Ruff
Machine Girl, a capitalism-critical electronic project started by Matt Stephenson in 2012, completely disintegrates traditional ideas about hardcore music. Becoming a duo when drummer Sean Kelly joined in 2015, the group thrives with its aptly named style of “alien music,” as Stephenson described it in a 2020 interview with Revolver. Rather than sticking with the industrial genre, the electronic duo mixes electronic, hardcore, metal, and punk, blurring pre-existing boundaries and pushing the limits of sound.
Machine Girl brought its unique brand of chaos to the dimly lit, moody atmosphere of Emo’s on Nov. 14. Accompanied by similar punk acts Kill Alters and Snõõper, the duo shepherded its audience into a volatile sonic whirlwind, perfectly matching the venue’s immersive energy.
Kill Alters kicked off the night at 7:57 p.m. with a forceful, drum-heavy setlist that quickly cemented the tone for the evening. Kill Alters, the project of married duo Bonnie Baxter and Nicos Kennedy, alongside drummer Hisham Bharoocha, established an eclectic precedent with its opening track, “AGONIZER.” Baxter utilized a synthesizer to add improvised soundbites, beeps, and clips, emphasizing an intentionally glitchy rhythm. Meanwhile, Bharoocha played a punishing rhythm, alternating between the thundering bass drum and clashing cymbals. Thanks to Baxter’s mixing, the next song, “EMX1 ELEKTROKINISIS / Syntakt Jam,” further mystified the audience as the band’s sonic rollercoaster shifted to an unsettling, celestial ambience, evoking a energy reminiscent of the liftoff sequence in David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.”
The band’s set had a certain fluid quality — at times, the music would feel endless, with Bharoocha playing the drums relentlessly. Meanwhile, Baxter alternated between electrifying the audience with emotionally-charged screams, which the Brooklyn wailer often sang in a rapping, rhythmic manner, and eerie, distorted vocals. Abrasive synths transported each crowd member into a mini-existential void, pulling listeners into a compelling gravitational vortex. “Eyelid Viewing,” the group’s most streamed single, was zthe night’s clearest track. Even as the music grew more punishing and powerful with high-pitched electronic beeps and a pulsating, steady beat, the lyrics conveyed a more melancholic truth: “I let my mind get way ahead of me / When my own eyes can’t tell me what is real / Like clouds looming over everything I do.”
Though the music’s unpredictability and sharp electronic sound evoked a sense of unease, Baxter’s stage presence brought joy and frivolity to the performance. She leaned into the crowd, leaving the stage’s safety to hold hands with the pit. The frontwoman threw herself on the ground, holding the mic with both hands as she screamed and cupped her hands into hearts that the audience returned with gratitude. Halfway through the set, Baxter greeted and thanked the audience. “It’s a lotta fun being on tour with Machine Girl. They’re nerds; they’re the coolest fucking nerds in the world, just so you know,” she said with a laugh. “And Snõõper — y’all know Snõõper? Hell yeah,” and with that, the singer led the audience toward the next song, “2MUCH.” Even through the chaos, Kill Alters’ tracks flowed into one another with the grace of seasoned performers, matching its experimental feel to the crowd’s viscerality.
Shortly after 8:45 p.m., Snõõper arrived onstage, bringing a quirky, theatrical energy that contrasted with Kill Alters’ brooding, experimental vibe. Technicians set Emo’s stage with several props, including a comically oversized fake speaker illuminated from the inside with a lamp light and a foam traffic light that emitted a cloud of smoke. As the group set up, frontwoman Blair Tramel greeted the crowd with an exaggerated tongue wiggle, hinting at the playful performance to come. Referred to as “Egg Punk overlords,” a genre that is also known as Devo-core, in an interview with Clash in 2023, Snõõper captures the rough edges of punk with a satirical charm that embraces a DIY approach.
Pink and red lights illuminated the stage throughout the group’s performance, highlighting the thrilling energy that Snõõper encapsulated with each short song in its set. At times, the lights seemed to reach a frenetic level of intensity. The intense strobe effects and flashes might have shocked some audience members, but the crowd ate it up. The audience crowd surfed along to songs like “Company Car,” where an impromptu guitar solo from guitarist Ian Teeple encouraged moshing in the pit. Tracks like “Bed Bugs” and “Pod” emphasized the quirkiness that compliments the band’s surreal sound. Punchy drumming and buzzing accompanied distorted bass lines, followed by wiry, jagged guitars and an iconic punk distortion. The tracks showcased each genre-bending influence the band played with, which left the audience begging for more.
In the last song of the night, “Running,” Teeple ripped the strings off of his guitar and twirled them around on stage while the rest of the band continued to play. Tramel jumped on stage — as she had been doing throughout the group’s set — while Super Snõõper, the group’s green alien puppet mascot, bopped through the pit, joining fans in their frantic moshing.
Before Machine Girl’s performance even began, the stage lights switched to pure red, setting the stage for the aggressive performance to come. The group arrived on stage around 9:58 p.m., with a white-hot spotlight on frontman Stephenson as he welcomed the crowd with a “Wassup, Austin!” hitting the mic on the head. Unfortunately, the band had to leave the stage at 10:01 p.m. because of a microphone error but returned after ten minutes with a “Check, check — there we gooo!” from Stephenson, reigniting the pit’s fervor.
Once it sorted the mic, the band launched into its set with abrasive energy, reflecting the chaotic vibe of a rave colliding with a mosh pit. The set’s glitchy, punk madness began with the aptly named track: “...Because I’m Young Arrogant and Hate Everything You Stand For.” Wearing a Machine Girl tee, Stephenson danced and threw himself around on stage, using the soundboard to warp his voice into distorted, alien-like screeches. He encouraged the crowd to jump and mosh, the track’s political messaging resonating with the enthused crowd.
The cut-and-pasted track “Hot Lizard” ended with Stephenson remarking, “That last one was about sexy lizards, reptiles, shit like that.” Even as the band played relentlessly hardcore tracks, and grew increasingly disorienting, the crowd never felt left behind, especially as Stephenson spoke directly to the pit. He also enjoyed running into the audience, setting off a small panic from the Emo’s security team, and joining the mosh during the song “Sick!!!” a crunchy electronic track full of glitches and soundbites.
The set’s carnage dissolved briefly, with Stephenson saying, “We fucking blew the system, that’s how fucking damn good this is going,” allowing stagehands to fix the technical issues. “But patience is a virtue,” he added.
As soon as helpers fixed the sound system, Machine Girl continued with more tracks from its October 2024 album, MG Ultra. Songs like “House of Mirrors,” “Schizodipshit,” and “Psychic Attack,” crescendoed in succession to increasing levels of depravity, as the aggressive thrash of the cymbals and pound of the bass drum mixed with distorted vocals and fuzzy guitar. As the music intensified, the audience descended into a frenzy. Following an encore chant, Machine Girl returned to the stage for two more synth-heavy tracks: “Cicadas” and “Scroll of Sorrow.”
Machine Girl delivered an unpredictable, hot-blooded performance packed with aggressive techno and punk influences with support from Kill Alters and Snõõper. Kill Alters disoriented listeners through its feverish experimental approach, while Snõõper’s punk-fueled silliness had everyone jumping, perfectly matching Machine Girl’s industrial reverberation. Combined with grunge genre-splicing, all three bands delivered a set that left no one standing still.