We last saw Useless Keys on Smashed Chair when they were doing their residency at the echo. They make their return with new bass player, Davin Givhan, who fills out the role Guylain Vivarat left quite nicely. Useless Keys bridge the gap between leather clad bikers and ambient heavy shoegazing – the type of group who are at home at either the Viper Room or The Echo. It’s a hungry machine, and they certainly feed it with marathon drumming and eerie string work, all of it colliding in an engine that roars, and falls back to a quiet rumble.

Useless Keys performed @ the Echo 09-06-10