Original Location at SLweekly.com

Muscle Hawk is a steroid-infused electronic beast that strikes terror into the faint of heart. That said, their formal live debut at Urban Lounge on Nov. 20 went over like gangbusters. I hadn't seen this many people for an opener in recent memory.

And that is saying something for the fair-weather scenesters of the fair city of Salt Lake. Muscle Hawk, Josh Holyoak and Greg Bower, recently added scene-mainstay Lindsay Heath (aka Kid Madusa) as drummer to the project they've been collaborating on for the last few months. Their Urban Lounge performance bodes well for future gigs and the development of a solid fan base. Salt Lake City may not be ready for it though: they may be too good. It is very danceable music and everyone seemed too cool to get down. I have a good excuse—I'm not a good dancer. But there were some shakers not shaking, as Josh noted to me after the performance. That is too bad because it is very moving tune-smithing along the lines of Ratatat or Justice.

Muscle Hawk's men knew their way around a mass of electronic gadgets and brought up the energy levels, regardless, especially on the live version of "Cocaine," which paid homage to its namesake by making at least a few folks jump. We were all a little hyped and looking for menthol cigarettes by the end of it due to live vocals in combination with Greg's on-point synthesizer/computer execution. Josh's bass playing (note his fuzzy strap next time, I hope he wears it again) was very funky and a great addition to Lindsay in the rhythm section. Check out the music and take note of "Fever." Add them, too, while you're there and check out their next show. And remember people, the gods gave you feet for a reason: to dance to Muscle Hawk (it's in Psalms somewhere).

(Jon Paxton)