Have A Nice Life is worth a trip or two to see live. Especially if Alcest is playing right after them. Their set in New Haven was much more tight and polished than it was at their live debut in New York. Cafe Nine was a decent place to see them, although the stage was way off in the corner and it was awkward finding a place to stand (lots of poles and stools and stuff).
The best part about seeing HANL in a bar as opposed to The Stone was there were no fucking seats. Yes, I could stand up and rock the fuck out as much as I want. And trust me, that is the only thing you want to do when HANL is fucking melting amps 2 feet in front of you.
Their "mini-tour" is done and most likely won't be playing any shows for a while. But when they do, you should take a note from Katherine who flew out from Colorado just to see them play in Connecticut. I thought taking a 5 hour bus to NY to see them play and immediately catching the 1 am bus back to Boston was crazy? No way dude, nothing compared to Katherine. That girl is fucking hardcore. Applause!
Out of the 750+ photos I shot, I narrowed it down to less than 20. That means they're all awesome. There's a few here and the rest are on Flickr where you can see 'em bigger & better.
Connecticut's devastatingly amazing metal/shoegaze/whatever duo Have A Nice Life played their first show ever at The Stone in New York on Sunday night. Living 5 hours away and being in the middle of the Salem Film Fest at work wasn't going to stop me from going. The only thing that could have stopped me was the fact that The Stone is fuckin ridiculously small and you can only buy tickets at the door, so hypothetically I could have gotten all the way there and still not have gotten in. Luckily, that wasn't the case.
I got in line around 8:00, there were maybe 15-20 people already ahead of me, and HANL was scheduled for 10. And they were the only band playing, too. No openers. No headliners. Just the best fucking band ever playing in a tiny room packed with about 100 die hards (sitting in folding chairs, wtf) and stacks upon stacks of amps.
HANL added a couple more people to the live lineup to make things go smoothly. In addition to Dan and Tim (on vocals and bass respectively), there was Dan's brother Will (of Afterlives) playing keyboards and Cody Kestigian (of America Addio) playing guitar. I was really hoping there would be live electronic drums or something, but they ended up just having the drum track pre-recorded, for mostly obvious reasons I guess.
So much power, emotion, and fucking volume. They rocked so hard. Everybody fucking loved it, although I think there were plenty of people (myself included) who wanted to toss the goddamn folding chairs out the non-existent windows and just rock the fuck out. When you're watching Dan turn into a screaming madman singing songs about his deceased father, the last thing you want to be doing is chilling out in your little wooden chair.
Here's the set list, complete with 2 new songs: Collins Deep, Deep Bloodhail Waiting For Black Metal Records To Come In The Mail I'm Dr. House Hunter Earthmover
I swear to God when they played "Earthmover" I was going to fucking die. That shit was unbelievably epic.
Once they finished playing, they had a tape called Time Of Land with 4 new songs that they were selling exclusively at that show. Can't get it elsewhere. And it was 1 tape per person, too, so I doubt you'll be seeing any copies for sale on eBay or whatever. Although you'll likely find it for downloading pretty soon (maybe even here?).
BUT, good news for everyone, more Have A Nice Life shows are already planned. They're scheduled to open for Alcest at Cafe Nine in New Haven, CT, and I'm pretty certain they'll be doing to same at Unit 11 in Allston, although that has yet to be confirmed. But seriously dudes, do whatever the fuck it takes to make it out and see HANL. Totally won't regret it.
So here's a band that is 1: from Middletown, Connecticut which is right next to my home town (yeah!) and 2: really tough to describe. Tough because no one else is doing what they're doing (at least not nearly as well) and also because some of their songs sound so different from others. That makes for difficult review writing, in case you couldn't tell.
Deathconsciousness is Have A Nice Life's debut double CD-R release, packaged in a slim line DVD case with a portion of Jacques-Louis David's The Death Of Marat as cover art. It also comes with a sizable book supposedly written by a Professor of Religious History at UMass Amherst. I say supposedly because every instance of his name is blacked out, therefor not allowing anyone to actually confirm or deny it. I haven't read the book yet, but it's also titled Deathconsciousness and I believe it has something to do with Medieval history and religion. These guys sure went all out for their debut release.
"But the music," you ask. "What does it sound like?" Start thinking Joy Division and My Bloody Valentine, throw in some metal, then you're in the right ballpark. But not that metal-gaze stuff like Jesu and whanot. Well, maybe sometimes, just a lot fuzzier. And less metal. I told you it was hard to describe. Anyway, take a quick look at their influences on their MySpace page (sometimes that's just so damn handy, and others...well, let's just say not everyone takes it seriously) and we see Earth, Xasthur, Sunn (I'll assume of the O))) variety), and lots of other bands that you can definitely tell Have A Nice Life enjoy listening to.
The first disc, The Plow That Broke The Plains, is a more easy going, poppy affair than the second (The Future), which is the louder and heavier of the two. The Plow opens with a nice dreamy, spacey track titled "A Quick One Before The Eternal Worm Devours Connecticut." Did I mention these guys have the best fucking song titles? Like, ever? How about "Waiting For Black Metal Records To Come In The Mail" or "Holy Fucking Shit: 40,000." Great stuff. But that "Black Metal Records" one is a bit misleading. It's not very metal, especially not black metal. It's a great song, though. One steeped in '80s reverb and super rocking with a great riff and metallic (not metal) industrial drums.
The Future is where you'll find most of the metal influences. Not much is overtly metal, but it's more metal than, say, New Order. The last track on The Future is an epic 11 and a half minute closer titled "Earthmover" and it certainly feels like it will at least shake my house, if nothing else. But no matter how much I say about Have A Nice Life, I'll never do them justice. And I filled up this review with superfluous words that barely describe the music and I haven't expressed my enthusiasm nearly enough. Deathconsciousness is a supremely unique and gorgeous album that I love whole-heartedly. It's that simple. This record is fucking awesome. It's certainly one of the best records of the year by far. Go download it for 5 bucks from the Enemies List website (it's sold out otherwise and you still get the book, digitally of course). I promise it'll be the best 5 bucks you spend all year.
I Want To Review Your Music If you make music and you want it reviewed on my blog, just send me an e-mail. I would love to hear what you're making and give you a little more exposure in the process.
Disclaimer All of the music on this site is for promotional and sampling purposes only. If you enjoy it, please consider buying the record or going to see the band live. They will appreciate it, I promise. If you own the rights to a song on this site and you would like it removed, please contact me and I will do so as quickly as my tiny paws allow.
Posts
