Live Photos: A Wilhelm Scream with La Armada @ Cobra Lounge, Chicago (4/30/26)
A Wilhelm Scream should be the biggest band on the planet.
Until the rest of the world gets a goddamn clue, those of us in the know get treated to the sort of intimate, sweaty rager that A Wilhelm Scream and La Armada brought to Cobra Lounge this April.
Before this show I was, shamefully, unfamiliar with openers and Chicago locals (by way of the Caribbean) La Armada, but hot damn, what a band. “Inspired by bands ranging from Bad Brains to Death”? Mixed with Caribbean beats? Sign me the hell up.
A Wilhelm Scream has been a favorite of mine ever since I heard The Rip on a compilation in 2004; I was IMMEDIATELY hooked. AWS is a hardcore band writing love letters to Iron Maiden, pounding their chests and shouting their feelings over twin guitar leads played at double speed. Verbose and literary, swaggering and sensitive, there’s something here for everyone who likes it fuckin’ loud.
Amazon Web Services are touring in support of their excellent new album, Cheap Heat. If I have one complaint—ONE—about the show, it’s that they didn’t play album opener “Somebody’s Gonna Die.” I don’t believe that song has debuted live yet, so I’ll give the boys from New Bedford a pass…for now.
They’re spending the rest of the year touring internationally, but keep a close eye out for the next time they roll through your city, you won’t want to miss them.
Stray observation here at the end—I don’t think I’ve been to a show since last summer where at least one band didn’t give a “Fuck ICE” shoutout, this show included. Hell, even the Whose Line is it Anyway live show I saw told the American Gestapo to shove it. All I have to say is that we’re going to win. Get ready for Woke 2, y’all.
