Author & Punisher at Turf Club (February 20, 2026)
- Meadowlark
- Titanis
- Mute Swan
- Black Storm Petrel
- Titmouse
- Titmice
- Rook
- Thrush
- The Barge
- Doppler
- Nihil Strength
- Terrorbird
- FEB. 21, 2026 CHICAGO, IL REGGIE’S MUSIC JOINT
- FEB. 22, 2026 INDIANAPOLIS, IN BLACK CIRCLE BREWING CO.
- FEB. 23, 2026 HAMTRAMCK, MI THE SANCTUARY DETROIT
- FEB. 25, 2026 TORONTO, ON THE GARRISON
- FEB. 26, 2026 MONTREAL, QC BAR LE RITZ PDB
- FEB. 27, 2026 CAMBRIDGE, MA SONIA LIVE MUSIC VENUE
- FEB. 28, 2026 BROOKLYN, NY THE MEADOWS
- MAR. 1, 2026 PHILADELPHIA, PA UKIE CLUB
- MAR. 2, 2026 BALTIMORE, MD METRO BALTIMORE
- MAR. 4, 2026 RICHMOND, VA RICHMOND MUSIC HALL
- MAR. 5, 2026 RALEIGH, NC CHAPEL OF BONES
- MAR. 6, 2026 ATLANTA, GA BOGGS SOCIAL & SUPPLY
- MAR. 7, 2026 NEW ORLEANS, LA GASA GASA
- MAR. 8, 2026 AUSTIN, TX THE FAR OUT LOUNGE & STAGE
- MAR. 9, 2026 DALLAS, TX DADA DALLAS
How do we feel about noise?
Noise is, after all, what we call unfamiliar music with no obvious redeeming qualities. Every generation redraws that line: the distortion that scandalized one era becomes a sweet spot for the next. Friday night at the Turf Club was a live demonstration of that transition — from familiar groove to abrasion to something stranger and more architectural.
Author & Punisher — the doom metal project of San Diego mechanical engineer Tristan Shone — is an industrial spectacle built around his custom Drone Machines: microphones, speakers, pistons, belts, and a MacBook at the center orchestrating the system. Or, you know, appearing to. Watching him perform raises immediate questions about control. Are the machines following him? Is he following them? He designed the rig, but once the show begins, the relationship feels more collaborative than hierarchical.
Shone welcomed guitarist Doug Sabolick for 2025’s Nocturnal Birding, ending years as a one-man operation. Friday was the first night of their tour, and the set featured that record, played in sequence (minus guest appearances). Sonically, the scale was staggering. The low end was precise and punishing. Polyrhythms churned underneath sheets of atmosphere. During the openers, I had found myself craving dynamic shifts; here, they arrived naturally. Long, plodding sludge passages gradually opened into brighter harmonic lifts. You could see heads that had been nodding mechanically begin to rise. An older industrial crowd, they still could find surprise in what A&P offered.
I had arrived unsure what this would mean for listening, writing, or photography. Shone is physically tethered to the rig, and visually it’s more laboratory than stage. But the sound carried clear lineage: 70s and 80s heavy metal refracted through industrial automation. One machine bore the inscription “these machines kill fascists,” echoing Woody Guthrie’s famous slogan, and Shone made the connection tangible by directing fans — through ever-present distortion — to support Border Angels.
Vocally, he was more saturated live than on record. The reverb never fully disengaged, even between songs. At times the words dissolved, but the effect is essential. The voice becomes another mechanical layer, yet remains stubbornly human. There’s tension in the performance: Shone and Sabolick sometimes aligned tightly with the machines, sometimes seemed to push against them. That friction is central to this tour’s design.
The openers mapped the path clearly. Black Magnet delivered muscular, tightly wound industrial rock — short, surgical riffs and monotone near-rap recalling Strap It On-era Helmet. A four-piece grounded in groove and repetition. King Yosef, a three-piece from Portland, leaned further into digital abrasion — glitch textures, harsher processing, political commentary delivered bluntly. By the time Author & Punisher reduced the stage to two figures surrounded by circuitry, the evening’s trajectory felt deliberate: from band to hybrid to machine-forward infrastructure. Each step removed a layer of traditional metal familiarity.
So who drives the rhythm? When Shone places his hand on the belt mechanism as the percussion pounds, is he sending a signal or absorbing one? The ambiguity feels intentional. The mystery is part of the composition. Industrial noise only feels like noise until you begin to hear its architecture and find meaning — and Friday night, that architecture was massive.
