There’s something that goes a little deeper than the usually transactional relationship of “audience” to “band” when it comes to the ties between Machine Girl and Orlando. Over nearly a decade, the cyber-grind trio have faithfully returned to Orlando regularly, each time welcomed by a bigger audience than the time before. It feels almost wholesome, in the dead-eyed age of the algorithm.
Monday night saw Machine Girl back in downtown Orlando at the Beacham — where they last played with 100 gecs — this time in the company of the equally unhinged Show Me the Body and LustSickPuppy. In the days running up to the show, a member of Machine Girl offhandedly mentioned that they were a little concerned that the venue might be too big. Let us tell you, that place was packed with young converts, some even more uniquely and eccentrically attired than those onstage, drinking up every moment. (This has been the case at every show since Machine Girl played Stonewall back in 2019.)
On this otherwise sleepy Monday night in downtown Orlando, the Beacham was awash in a dystopian mess of lights, cables, assemblages and amplifiers that created a perfectly end-of-days vibe for the affair. Every band played for their lives in front of a churning sea of bodies. Everyone involved decided to turn the volume up to an absolutely punishing degree, which made the show even more physical and immersive. And at the very end Machine Girl front person Matt Stephenson climbed the back wall of the venue to give the VIP area a lil’ serenade. Respect due.
