REVIEW: Yakuza, Atlas Moth, Batillus and The Swan King
WHEN: November 23, 2011
WHERE: Subterranean, 2011 W. North Ave., Chicago
Yakuza
Subterranean was packed Wednesday night as Yakuza, Atlas Moth, Batillus and The Swan King pretty much tore the place apart. Here’s what you need to know:
- After wanting to see Yakuza live for the past few years, I can definitely say it was a much more high energy performance than I expected. Don’t get me wrong — their music is intense. It’s more or less the idea of what an act that fuses metal and jazz is going to be like live. Regardless, Bruce Lamont (who is typically a mellow, laid back guy in my experience) is a beast on stage, from punching the ceiling above the stage to his breakneck headbanging. The rest of the band follow suit, and it’s definitely interesting to see the meshing of high and low culture in person as opposed to just hearing it on an album. Much of the set consisted of material from 2010’s Of Seismic Consequence.
Triple Penetration: Because of this show, I now know that three microphones can fit inside of a saxophone.
- The Atlas Moth played a solid set that, like last time, consisted of material from their new album, An Ache for the Distance, as well as “…Leads to a Lifetime on Mercury.” Unlike last time, however, drummer Tony Mainiero slipped up during the second song, “Perpetual Generations,” and the guys had to start over. According to bassist Alex Klein, it’s the first time they’ve botched a song like that. Shit happens, I guess, but they recovered well and the rest of the set was still better than whatever crap you’re probably listening to right now.
Are You Sure You Know Where You’re At? For most of the night, there was a kid up front who was dancing like he was in the club and doing some sort of move that looked like he was shooting hoops (Do people still say that? I never gave much of a fuck about sports…). It was at its weirdest during Batillus, but nobody pointed it out until the Moth set. I assume he was on really good drugs, or was hearing different music than I was.
- I had never heard Brooklyn’s Batillus before Wednesday night, but I’ll definitely be checking them out some more. Their set was solid, and they had a doomy, sludgy sound with a lot of blackened atmospherics.
Random Observation: Seriously…What was up with that club-dancing kid?!
- It was also my first time hearing openers The Swan King. They sounded not unlike something that might have come out of Seattle in the early ’90s. That’s not a bad thing, though. I’ve always been a big fan of diverse bills.
Yeah… I’m out of remarks here.
REVIEW: Hideout Inn Halloween Hurt 2011: Indian, Rabid Rabbit and Bloodyminded
WHEN: October 30, 2011
WHERE: The Hideout Inn, 1354 W. Wabansia Ave., Chicago
The 2011 Hideout Halloween Hurt was my first time at the Hideout Inn, and it was an interesting evening. The night’s line-up consisted of Indian, Rabid Rabbit and Bloodyminded.
- Indian played an ear-splitting set consisting primarily of material from their latest album Guiltless. (If you’re into a sludgy blackened doom sound and you don’t have it yet, you should definitely pick it up.) There was a lot of energy during their set despite the limited stage space, and everything sounded pretty much spot on with the studio versions. The strange thing about this show, especially during Indian’s set, is that the crowd stood still the entire time — something I’ve never seen a crowd do during a band this heavy.If anything, that’s the one thing that threw this show off for me. The intensity of the crowd just didn’t match the intensity of the music. The same could potentially be said for the crowd at the Atlas Moth/Wolvhammer show a few weeks ago, but that crowd was a bit more energetic. Honestly, though, there wouldn’t have been a lot of room for anyone to go crazy in either venues, so it’s ultimately probably a logistics thing…or so I’ll assume.
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Fucking Intense: Drummer Bill Bumgardner’s wild-eyed stare is matched in strength only by late-90s WWF Superstars. I’m not fucking kidding. That dude looked fucking intense.
- I spent a good deal of Rabid Rabbit’s set trying to figure out who they reminded me of. Finally, it hit me that I heard a lot of Electric Wizard and Type O Negative in their sound. I had never heard of them before this show, and they were a welcome surprise. The surplus of smoke machine fog added even more character to the set.
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Two Beats Per Minute: The band closed their set with a slow-but-still-pummeling cover of the Misfits’ “Angelfuck,” which brought to mind the old Type O cover of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” — jokingly referred to as having been recorded at two beats-per-minute.
- I’m not really sure how to explain Bloodyminded. Basically, three members of the band played with some sort of effects controls (which, from a distance, initially looked like controllers from the original Nintendo system) as the vocalist screamed spoken word into two (and sometimes more) mics. It was interesting, if not difficult to wrap my head around at first. But I think I could get into it.
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Random Observation: There was something surreal about this whole set that made me wonder if I was dreaming. The whole scene at Hideout Inn around this time reminded me of this dream I’ve had a few times where, for whatever reason, I inexplicably own an opium den (which the Hideout is not) where girls serve cheap beer on fancy trays and the bar is tended by a shriner with a third eye. In the dream, however, there is a non-existent doom metal cover of “Strawberry Fields Forever” playing on infinite repeat.
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The dream is weak, though. Bloodyminded are almost the sonic embodiment of what I imagine the bands from Alan Moore’s Neonomicon would sound like. I half-expected to hear the language of the Old Ones at any minute summoning the Great Lord Cthulu from the depths of…wherever. I never read Lovecraft.
REVIEW: The Atlas Moth & Wolvhammer Album Release Show
WHEN: October 16, 2011
WHERE: Ultra Lounge, 2169 Milwaukee Ave., Chicago
The Atlas Moth and Wolvhammer drew a respectable crowd for their album release show Sunday night at Ultra Lounge. Since I’m most familiar with Atlas Moth, I’ll keep this post short and sweet and include only the best details. One of these days, I’ll come up with a clever presentation for this set-up.
- The Atlas Moth‘s set couldn’t have been tighter. I caught their soundcheck earlier in the evening and couldn’t believe how good “Perpetual Generations” sounded live. When their set finally came around earlier in the evening, the 6 songs they played from new album An Ache For The Distance and “…Leads to a Lifetime on Mercury” from 2009’s A Glorified Piece of Blue Sky couldn’t have possibly sounded closer to the studio recordings than they did.
Best Moment: Spontaneous crowd interaction at the end of “An Ache for the Distance” with vocalist/guitarists Stavros Giannopoulos and David Kush shared their microphones with a couple of audience members.
- Wolvhammer delivered a pummeling set of blackened sludge metal that definitely placed their new album, The Obsidian Plains, on the must-check-out-as-soon-as-fucking-possible list. Former Nachtmystium guitarist Jeff Wilson is counted among their ranks now, which should merit further interests from fans of that band.
Haven’t heard them yet? Their 2009 demo, Rich With Bloodfuel, is available HERE. What the fuck are you waiting for? Check it out NOW.
- With their spastic blend of metal, hardcore and noise rock, KEN mode are probably the best thing to come from Canada since Terrence and Philip, which is definitely an improvement from the Great White North’s more well-known musical offerings. (Seriously, Canada…You should expatriate Nickelback to some third world shithole and save yourselves the humiliation-by-association.)
Random Observation: Vocalist/guitarist Jesse Matthewson spits more on stage than anyone I’ve ever seen. Bring a fucking poncho and one of those SWAT visor things if you’re squeamish.
- Opening band Jar’d Loose were, if I heard correctly, playing their first show this night. If that was the case, they’ve busted their asses rehearsing because they played like a band who’ve been doing this for a bit. Their vocalist could maybe work on his stage banter a little, but I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing them again.
Keep an Eye Out: They’re playing a Halloween show on Oct. 29 at Panchos as White Zombie. I guess I can see that working.
Heavier Than Your Mom 