Metal Show Musings...Part 2

So after a rocking trip to the Rock n Roll Hotel Saturday night, I was back at it Wednesday, this time to see Kylesa supported by Blood Ceremony, White Hills and Lazur/Wulf.

Quick thing about the RnR Hotel: every show I have been to there (which is now four) I have been less than impressed with the sound. All the shows have been on the loud side, but the vocals are always way down in the mix. So while I like the location, the beer list, the rooftop bar, and the general sight lines making it a great place to SEE a show it's not a great place to HEAR the show. Let me know if you think otherwise. I first thought it was just where I was: for Lazer/Wulf and White Hills I stayed to the stage right side. Especially for White Hills, where I was in front of the bass, I could barely hear the guitar. When I moved center stage right in front for Blood Ceremony and Kylesa it was still fairly muddy. Maybe that's just how the bands are but it just doesn't sound right to me.

Lightning not too good but that's Lazur/Wulf in there

Ah well, what about the bands, man!! First up was Lazur/Wulf. I admit I was late for these guys so I only caught their last two songs. I listened to their latest record The Void That Isn't on Spotify and thought it was pretty cool. They are a three-piece and they are in the experimental zone of the metal spectrum. Their show was also pretty cool. Mainly instrumentals with occasional vocals. I liked them OK but wasn't broken up about missing most of their set.

White Hills...SMOKE!

Next up was White Hills. They are a spacey kind of metal thing. I listened to their 2012 record Frying On The Rock and was not terribly impressed. It had a lot of weird stuff going on, a lot of stuff that sounded like filler. When they took the stage though I was pleasantly surprised. First, the bass player is a good-looking blonde. Every band should have a good looking blonde bass player. Including mine. And they had a smoke machine, which I loved and want my band to get. The music was MUCH better live than the one record I heard. They only did four songs so they were on the longish side but they got into some seriously good grooves. I was moving along with it and enjoyed it immensely. I should have bought the live vinyl they had available because I listened to it today on Spotify and liked it a lot. They are coming back in August with The Cult, so a trip to Silver Spring may be in my future.

The next band, Blood Ceremony, I was VERY excited to see. I listened to their new record, The Eldritch Dark, and just fell in love with it. It's out on CD but I want the vinyl, but it's still just pre-orders till later this month. Nor did they have any at the show to buy. Curses!! I did get their t-shirt, buying it directly from a guy who I later observed was the bassist. That would explain why he seemed very pleased to sell me their t-shirt. NICE! They are from Canada and sound like Black Sabbath doing Jethro Tull. But with a super-hot-kind-of-witchy woman singing, playing keyboards that sound like an organ, and playing the flute (hence the obligatory Tull reference).  Their songs are just awesome, a great mix of mellow meets heavy. They sing about witches and sorcery and summoning devils and imps but it's all in good fun. Their set seemed to fly by but I recognized much of the stuff from the new record. Once the vinyl shows up I'll go deeper into the music, just trust me they were outstanding and I will see them again if I can. Sweet!

Blood Ceremony...more bad lighting

Finally, the headline, Georgia's Kylesa. I've already covered how I love their new record Ultraviolet. The show did not disappoint. Heavy and head banging mixed with groove oriented swagger. They have two drummers, which is a bit much to me but hey whatever, bass (duh) a guy guitarist and a girl guitarist who reminds me of a friend of mine but with significantly more tattoos (see the extra pictures below).

Kylesa...they brought it!

A few observations. They have a shit load of pedals. As you can see, guy-guitarist (Phil I think it is) has not just a keyboard in front of him but some sort of weird theremin as well as a skateboard rigged into a stringed instrument which with an assortment of effects pedals he made all kinds of batshitcrazy sounds. Girl-guitarist (Laura I think it is) had even more pedals and did the leads. I liked her light green Chucks...I liked her playing better. Real good guitarist, not flashy or showoff-y but right in the vibe of the music. You don't have to shred all the time in metal (which they can certainly do) to kill it. For me, it's all about groove. And in the fast numbers I banged my head harder than I have in years...probably not since I saw Iron Maiden the first time in 1990...wow that's a long time ago. Laura is the better singer between her and Phil; she sings while Phil just sort of yells. That's fine it works I like it. Also, the bass player does not have two heads, as the picture above suggests; I had to use panorama-mode because I was right the frak in front and the nerve of that guy moving around during my picture taking.

So...killer show, all four acts were great but especially BC and Kylesa. Two t-shirts procured (guess who) but no vinyl (doh!). Very pleased and worth my still ringing ears!

Here's some more pictures since I was nice and close.

White Hills dude

White Hills lady...see what I mean?

Blood Ceremony guitarist with a SWEET looking Yamaha

Dude I bought the BC shirt from

Witchy woman

Alia something or other from Blood Ceremony

Kylesa Phil's effects

Kylesa Laura's pedals

Kylesa bass dude

Kylesa groove

Laura and tats and sweet Les Paul

Crazy sound time!

Set list

Metal Show Musings...Part 1

On Saturday night the missus and I headed into the city for adventure. We headed down to the H Street District in DC to catch Torche and KEN Mode and Lo-Pan at the Rock n Roll Hotel. My wife is no metal head but she is always up for a good time. We started with dinner at Star and Shamrock where we ate lattkes and I had an amazingly delicious fried bologna sandwich washed down with delicious half-and-half...in this case half Guinness and half Harp. Mmmmm beer.

Before the show we spent about 45 minutes on the RnR's rooftop bar. It was a beautiful evening so hanging out watching the Nationals on one TV and the Hawks hockey game on the other while drinking Hipster Juice (aka PBR) was a great way to relax.

This was a show I hadn't really thought about going to but decided earlier in the day that we needed to get out for the evening. I got some terrible news about the passing of a good friend and I felt that staying in was the wrong idea...best to get out and enjoy life, even if it is bone-crunching metal.

I like Torche just fine but they are not amongst my favorites. Their latest record Harmonicraft just missed my top 5 metal records of the year. I checked out the other two bands on the bill before hand and was excited for one and lukewarm on the other.

The opener I was interested in was Lo-Pan. I listened to their latest Salvador a couple times before the show and really liked it. They are a metal band with a classic hard rock-cum-metal vibe, meaning they have a good groove and a singer who sings. They have good sense of humor evidently: their name is taken from the bad guy from the Kurt Russell cult favorite Big Trouble In Little China.  The band was interesting to look at: 2 very hefty guys who we thought might be related (they don't appear to be), a drummer in a Sonics jersey, and a guitarist who looked like Father Time if he went on a bender. That said, they fucking ruled the evening. The vocals were way down in the mix which was a drag because the singer can really belt it; very soulful classic sounding rock vocals. The guitarist could shred with the best of them. Very impressed with these guys. And I loved the gear: bassist had a beautiful Geddy Lee-style Rick 4003 with a huge bass cab sporting an American flag grill; guitarist had a beauty of a tobacco burst Les Paul. He broke the low E string about halfway through the set...finioshed the song including a solo with the string dangling off, in fact he tore the string off in the middle of a solo, then took about 45 seconds to put a new string on. A real pro!! Bought their t-shirt and would have bought vinyl if they hadn't sold out (good for them!!).

Next us was KEN Mode from Winnipeg. These guys were more of a hardcore and math rock thing which I don't really get into it. Musically it was a lot of screaming and a lot of yelling and they were incredibly loud but they put on an interesting performance. Lots swinging guitars over their heads and jumping around and funny face making. It was evident they are very good at what they do but it isn't really my bag. They have one song on their new record that made it onto my Spotify mix but the rest of it just didn't grab me.

Headlining was Torche from Miami. Like I said I dig them just fine. They are an interesting band in that their songs can shift abruptly from a very hardcore sounding pummeling to a great metallic groove. The melodic parts of their records tend to stay out because they are a welcome respite from the onsluaght. Their songs tend to be pretty short and they didn't take much of a break between any of the songs; they segued right into one another without a pause.  The bass player looked a little like Chris Daughtry. The one guitarist had a sweet looking twelve string that he was making do what 12 strings usually don't.

So all in all a very enjoyable evening of metal. We finished it off with a trip to Dangerously Delicious Pies for after concert snacking. Jodi deserved a sweet reward for being such a good sport.

This is Part 1 because Wednesday I am going back to the RnR Hotel to see Kylesa and Blood Ceremony and Lazer/Wulf and another band I already forgot the name of.

Local RocknRoll

Saturday night three/fourths of my band trekked down to the Rock n Roll Hotel to see our friends Technicians play their maiden show at that fine establishment. I had only been there once, seeing the great Titus Andronicus. We met Technicians when we had the pleasure of sharing a bill with them at the now regrettably defunct Red Palace, which is/was just down the street from the RnR Hotel. They are great musicians and perhaps more importantly incredibly nice and gracious fellows. Their drummer Steve was kind enough to let our drummer Mike play his kit in the interest of speeding up the wait between sets. It was great to play with them and a treat to see them play a great room like the RnR Hotel.

Nick, Steve & Navid of Technicians

Technicians were the second band on the bill. They were without their bass player this time around. He had other commitments but it was not a major distraction. I have had to do shows without our bassist and it's a bit of a let down, but Technicians are gifted enough to do it without any significant loss. At first listen they strike one as a very Pavement-y and Sebadoh sounding outfit. They have that very 90s alternative sound going, but what's most interesting is that they have a refreshing take on it. Take their EP, which is available at their website (and really good, BTW). The first track is, not surprisingly, the best, a great cut called "Dreamer." It starts off very ethereal and liquid sounding before crunching up near the end. The guitar lines drive the songs, and they have an interesting sophistication in their construction. These passages are very reminiscent of a band from Austin I have written of before and love terribly called Explosions In The Sky, which is basically three guitar nerds making glorious instrumentals. There's a nod in the rhythm track, be it on purpose or not, to fellow DC indies Jawbox on the lovely "Now That We're Home." Performance-wise, they are very strong. Engaging presence and great tunes and excellent musicianship equal a band you should check out. Get their EP; it's one of those name your price things. You won't be disappointed.

Boris Milic

Moving backwards, the first band of the evening was Boris Milic. I hadn't heard of them but I wound up walking out with their 10" vinyl. Boris appears to be the name of the leader of the band. According to the liner notes he played all the instruments himself with an assist from the producer. I figured it would be cool when he came out with a sweet Gretch White Falcon. The band was tight. They played that kind of twitchy-sounding, nervous power pop I spent countless dollars on through Not Lame Records back in the 90s. Especially the excellent song "Don't Tell Me Stories, Gramophone"which reminded me of bands like Heavy Into Jeff and Bloody Chiclets (BOY! I feel like a Pitchfork writer now, dropping references to equally obscure bands like it should mean something to you. IDIOT!) The drawback to the record was a few too many filler-sounding instrumentals. The songs that were songs, like "Not A Toy" and "I'm Just Saying," are great. The instrumentals just didn't grab me. No knock..they are a band I hope to see again and spend more money on.

Interesting thing I noticed: the opening riff to "Not A Toy" sounds remarkably like a riff that Tom wrote for a song we are working on. In the unlikely event Boris ever hears that song I swear on all that is good and holy that Tom did not steal that riff from you. Tom hasn't bought a new record since Don't Look Back so there is no way he could have heard it.

After two bands I was hungry and getting to the point where if I drank anymore PBR I would be carried out of that joint, so Tom and I left to go get food.

One more thing: on both of the aforementioned records, the vocals are mixed in the right spot. At the RnR Hotel they were very buried in the mix, which is disappointing, especially to a lead singer like me! Let's hear what they have to say, man!!

One last thing: Technicians are playing there again on February 9. So be a good sport and check them out. I will probably be in the back gnashing my teeth at those toads because I am still looking for our next gig.