Cymbals Eat Guitars at the Replay Lounge

Cymbals Eat Guitars‘ frontman, Joseph D’Agostino, has a window tattooed on the inside of his right forearm: a glimmering of trees and sky etched into his skin.

​Is it a window leading inside the 20-year-old singer’s headspace? Or is it a window leading to a technicolored outside world? For D’Agostino, they might be the same thing. After releasing an ambitious debut, Why There Are Mountains, in 2009, the Staten Island band is garnering acclaim for its dreamlike sonic sculptures, captured in D’Agostino’s sprawling songwriting.

Cymbals Eat Guitars’ live performance is an impressionistic smattering of its expansive, orchestral studio tracks. At times, fans may catch only glances of recognizable hooks and undulating serenades, but the band’s muscular vitality is even more vivid in person. If listening to Why There Are Mountains via headphones offers goosebumps, Cymbals Eat Guitar’s live show offers nothing short of vertigo.