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5-26-6 |
| I was most disappointed to have missed Kylesa with the DUAL DRUMMER experience. I heard only rumors from pale faced attestors to the mighty devastation, caused by such a blatant defiance in the face of the rock-gods who say that just one drummer is sufficient. Like having an extra guitar amp, in case one drummer breaks down, there is always a stand-by. Scissorfight offers a rarely viewed window into the atlantic north eastern music sceene. Something I only know exists at all solely due to the persistence of this band, and the fact that some of their songs are themed around this area of the contenant. Whizkey stomp. Also Orange Goblin was exceedingly good. In the vein of tube firing thunder rock, England's original stoner doom band...played none of my old time favorite songs. I was made sad by this. Luckily, the pub was near by, and bass on tap cleansed me of such sorrows. |
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Trephine played a really mathy metal set. Total technical skill, at times turning into a nintendo game soundtrack. Notes all over the board and shattered and shuffled just to be picked up again and thrown in your face. This is what Brian from Meatjack is up to these days. This time only, taking over on the bass and minus his huge wall of effects processors...That's not to say that he didn't rip it up with some excellent technical precision, and did have a few cool FX running. Brian is sort of a sonic master and also has a cool one man project called Darsombra which embraces the outer edge of experimental and totally employs his mastery of the multi effects processing units. |
| I was very happy to see L.A.'s own YEAR LONG DISASTER presenting their own blend of poppy yet irresistible stoner rock. So it's not the sickest feed back ridden sludgetastic blood curdling doom. It is racing Turbo style, driving through the dessert at top speed with the mufflers on fire with a bunch of dead coke whore's in the trunk kinda rock. That's right. I think it comes from the fact that, there is not allot to be insanely depressed about in southern california. All there is to do is cruise, pick up glam rock chicks, and stuff them in your trunk. That is simply the reality of Los Angeles. Old school vocals, think Quite Riot meets Queens of the stone age and your half way there. Totally rock n roll metal with a touch of that hidden doom, gestating in the tube amp, it can pop out when you least expect and make your head bob up and down. |  |
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I don't care what you have to say, TUMMLER totally rocks, and they have never failed to prove this every time I see them live. Habituating a meaty song structure which has only gotten heavier over the years. Hard hitting drums and a moist-pemmican guitar sound that leaves ones ear drums saucy. Not to mention Brads uniquely rad vocal styling's, a cool mix between singing and yelling that comes from a strange part of the larynx that I will never understand. All in all, Tummler is a great rock band and they deserve respect. If not for their music, then simply for the fact that they are from Champaign Illinois. Champaign has absolutely NO metal sceene, and might as well be a cultural dessert outside of sports bars and frat houses. How this band has forged out its existence in such a mundane college town for all of these years is not only unfathomable, but impressive that they have not ended up in the news with a bunch of jock-Illini heads in their freezer's and strewn about the crawl space. Lord bless you Tummler for hangin in there. |
| GRIEF are the consummate masters of this whole sceene. Spawning from a time when doom and sludge did not exist out side of maybee Winter and Hellhammer, in a town monopolized by fast paced hardcore, Grief played long slow songs fueled by agony and antipathy. I got my first Grief record when I was 16, and I thought something was wrong with my cd player. This band was my introduction to slow music. I was so stoaked to see them re-don the armor and pick up the axes once more after a lengthy hiatus, to provide what was uncontendably the best performance of the entire weekend. I was so surprised that such a HUGE sound came from some marshall halfstacks. Still defining the pauperized street punk mentality but in a black sabbath sort of way. What does that mean, I don't know. Except that, maybee you don't need walls of orange amps to be the heaviest fucking band in the world, you just need a tortured soul and quality song writing ability. It was all there, from the vocals to the sound of every note, it was fully right on. They played all of my favorite songs and just really made me swell with a sense that all was well...Devastating |  |
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After a while of being abscent...most likely due to projection, RWAKE came on like a natural disaster with all new material that utterly destroyed me. This band approaches metal from a totally different angle. It would take some isolated obscurest from Little Rock to re-create heavyness from outside of the box. From song structure, to vocal styling's, to the drum cadence to the guitar tone, nothing about Rwake is conventional. They create something that is beyond heavy metal. An intense blend of madness and sorrow captured and harnessed. This is dark evil distilled to its pure essence, then fed through some amps and unleashed on the world. Words can not describe the auditory experience. Here is a VIDEO of the brand new song "Fire and Flight". In ten years, this is how metal will sound. |
| Boris was one of finer acts of the weekend. Appearing before a huge wall of Sunn amps, which I believe were for the Sunn set. They however adopted this veritable wall of tube sludge effortlessly creating some of the most devastating doom of my horrid reckoning. It was very loud, and very slow. Even making bands like Khanate and Eyehategod almost pale by comparison. It was most impressive. Especially the guitarist, any asian lady that attractive, and that into playing doom music is instantly in my "I love you/Rock Goddess" list...forever. Seriously, she is insanely hot, and she rocks. Flowing like water into fast paced stoner rock montages like if they were a totally different band. Also the dual neck bass player. Sheesh. FUCKING AMAZING!!! I am so excited that I got to see this...fatal |
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Sunn O))) created sounds through a thick fog for what seemed like years of elden cloaked wooded paganed sonic theatrics. The coolest part of this set was that you couldn't see anything except for the drummer from Boris, who stood atop the amps with an outstretched arm, that beckoned some unseen forces of evil with out hardly moving. What little movements were made, were only to extend his harkening hands a little further. Quite impressive was his ability to hold this position for the entire set. Quite an experience...decimating |
| So the next day I went to Chicago to catch GRAVES AT SEA at what is certainly the worst venue ever. I mean the sound is all right, and Graves certainly put on a devastating show, despite the incompetence of the sound man. However, the venue itself was empty.This is not my first experience at the Note in Chicago either. Rwake, Deadbird, Meatjack its always the same review, that the show was totally devoid of people and swamped with lack-luster disinterest. I could never figure it out. Now it is unmistakable that the promoter in charge of making sure that people know of these amazing shows totally has his head up his ass. Clearly more concerned with making sure certain people aren't allowed in, rather than letting those in the sceene be aware. This night was no different. I believe ten people witnessed the amazing, crushing pestilence of Graves at Sea...Unbalievable. God help you if your a touring band and you get booked at the Note in Chicago, nothing but bad stories about the poor treatment of bands, and try to sell some merch...good luck. Better get their early too, so you can hand out flyers so maybee someone random will show. If I was a touring band, and I got booked here, I would just not even bother showing up. I bet no one would even notice. |  |
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Holy Shit, RUE has come a long way in a short time. Yet again with another line up change, and tighter than ever. Just look at the gear in this picture, that's all Burn's equipment. Damn did it sound good too. The new songs were sludgy and disastrous. I am certain that if there were some people at this show, a circle pit would have erupted. My favorite part of the evening was when they covered Eyehategod's "Blank". A song that I truly love, in fact, one of the songs that indeed changed how I listen to music in general. Executed flawlessly, maybee even better than the original. Thick and meaty, damn it was fucking great. So I had a blast all by myself. All Pictures by Tom Denney More Reviews |