Was meditating in my room last night - you know, trying to figure out life and stuff - when the urge to see live music hit hard - the need to feel some bass, hear some shredding guitar, fall into entrainment with the rhythm, the beat. From an inkling through an urge it grew into action, and so I walked to The Monkey House in Winooski to check out Wolfhand, A Deer A Horse, Father Figuer, and Greaseface.
Our Burlington, Vermont music scene is incredible, always has been - discovered that when I came up to St. Michael's College in the fall of '83. First two weekends featured crazy good live bands: Freshman "Dance", The Decentz, the Welcome Back "Dance", Pinhead. So tight! Great musicians and performers. Had to ask, "Where are they from?" Here. Really? Struck me then - guess great music has to come from somewhere!
Used to be, you'd see a line-up of bands in a club listing and, if you didn't know the bands, have to kind of guess at what they'd be playing, usually based on their names: "Screaming Broccoli? Huh. Punk? Maybe?" Now, you check the Facebook Event, follow links to band pages and Soundcloud and Bandcamp, you can listen to some tunes and maybe get some idea of what you might hear.
Arrived a little after 10, rather sure I'd missed one of the bands. A loud, loose young punk band was thrashing on stage, which I think was Greasepaint. It was a sparse crowd - easy to spot members of two other bands hanging together. The short-haired women were probably A Deer, A Horse, and it seemed a pretty safe bet the guys in black were Wolfhand. I'd missed Father Figuer.
The band on stage finished their fun. A Deer, A Horse ripped through a visceral set full of shredding leads, emotional to screaming vocals, and great globs of sustained bass. Felt good. But I was really looking forward to Wolfhand, based on the all of 15 minutes I'd spent checking out snippets of music deciding which live show to head out to. The little I'd heard of their stuff made me curious - sounded like dark, progressive rock. Which I kind of like.
Turned out to be just what I needed! To use some lazy musical shorthand, the music sounded like early, darker-edged, instrumental Pink Floyd. Definitely heavier in spots. Ambient in others. Very cinematic - a sense of epic scale, at times. They were playing before only a handful of us, but they poured themselves into it, and the small crowd was enrapt, and as appreciative with applause as we could be.
The way I'm wired, if I'm getting into a band and its music, I need to tell everyone about them. That's why I'm a Music Director. And, thus this blog post. Last night, it began with Instagram:
Spoke briefly with a couple band members after, expressing my love for what I'd heard. Don't know anyone in the band, which kind of makes it cooler, somehow? Adds mystique, in a way. Got home, bought their music on bandcamp, "Liked" their facebook page, sent them a facebook message telling them I'd liked their set, shared more posts on facebook and Twitter... can't help myself. When I get into a band and their music, this is what I do!
There's a looseness, still, in their recorded output available on bandcamp. They were a bit tighter live. They announced from the stage last night that they're going into the studio to record a new album - which I'm now very much looking forward to.
Downloaded what I could from bandcamp. Picked up their PLAGUELANDS EP, which came out in December - Bandit Cult (7:15), Plague Bearer (6:44), and Doomed Convoy (6:44). Also got the other tracks at bandcamp - the Doomed Convoy (Demo) (7:33) and Desert Altar (Demo) (10:23) from early 2017, and That Weapon Will Replace Your Tongue (9:24) from the fall of 2016.
Check out Doomed Convoy:
I'm so looking forward to seeing them live again! The next event I see listed is at Higher Ground on July 20th, supporting Voices In Vain at their record release show. There are a few bands on the bill - hope they get some time to play.
Their live set last night was exactly what I needed. Love it when the stars align!
No comments:
Post a Comment