It's been a long time since I've been to a straight up rock show (let alone a mainstream one). I mean, a lot of the bands I go see usually have some sort of rock elements but rarely do I go see a rock show. I think the last one might have been when Big Business played at the Middle East Upstairs almost a year ago. Sometimes I really get in the mood for some serious head banging and last night's show provided exactly that.
The first band that played was Never Got Caught, some generic rock band lead by Nice Guy Eddie. No joke, this guy looks and sounds just like Chis Penn, just without the track suits. These guys didn't do anything for me.
Then Stinking Lizaveta was up. The last time they were in Boston they opened for Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, a show I now regret missing even more than I did before. Lizaveta is a trio made up of a crazy guitarist that often yelps into his guitar and has a board with a handful of pedals, a female drummer who does yoga stretches before she gets on stage, and a metallic silver shirt wearing guy who plays electronic stand up bass. They're some weird jazzy, noisy, mathy, punky, psychedelic combo of sorts. Trying to describe them is like trying to pin down a shape shifter. I was quite surprised at how much the crowd enjoyed them and I especially enjoyed watching everyone try to bang their heads in time with the band's ever changing rhythms.
Torche is a band I've seen a few times already but for some reason I never really gave them credit until now. I'm sure I can be forgiven for ignoring them when they opened for Mogwai at The Avalon. Then when I saw them play with Jesu, I still had the same feelings towards them without even bothering to reconsider. But I went to this show open minded, hoping to really enjoy them. They were the same band playing to a fresh mind and lo and behold, I really loved it. I think part of it has to do with their new album kicking so much ass but either way, they were really great.
And behold thee mighty Sword. It was everything I had hoped it would be. They fucking rocked my face off, probably breaking my neck in the process (although my neck doesn't hurt as much as it did after the Big Business show). Of course with music of this type, it's always better to hear it live if only for volume's sake. No matter how sick your subs are, you'll never be able to recreate the amount of noise coming from a live band. And the crowd loved every minute of it but it took about 3/4s of the way through the set for a pit to form (right after Barael's Blade, of course). They played everything we wanted to hear, both new and old. And they (obviously) finished their encore with Freya, which midway through morphed into a sweet jam with dueling guitar solos. Yes, you read right, two solos at the same time. Fucking ridiculous. Then they went into a cover (which may or may not have been Bring It On Home To Me by Sam Cooke) before finishing off the rest of Freya. Fantastic stuff. It was an amazing show that makes me wait in eager antici....pation for their return.
Posts
1 comment:
Didn't we see Torche at CMJ with Daughters, Red Sparrowes, and the almost entertaining Made Out of Babies?
Post a Comment