Man I am going to miss going to see shows out here. I don’t know if I have just handpicked the correct shows to see while living out here, but I have not seen a bad show here yet. I’m only living here for a few more weeks so I should try and see some more...but alas no money to be spending on fun really.
Usually “supergroups” are a failure. Well nowadays they are anyway...obviously CSN & Y, Cream, ELP and Bad Company were pretty solid bands. Okay, Cream were the best of that list, but...some of the later ones in the 80’s like The Firm an Asia were for the most part one hit wonders. I’ll most likely never hear Velvet Revolver or Audioslave, but I’m going to assume they aren’t very good at all.
It was only a matter of time before a band would form out of some of the bigger more influential contemporary underground heavy bands. When I first heard about this band I was immediately excited to hear it. Scott Kelly from Neurosis, Al Cisneros from Sleep and Om, Dale Crover from The Melvins, Scott “Wino” Weinrich from St Vitus, The Obsessed, The Hidden Hand and pretty much the Godfather of this genre of “stoner”, “doom” and what have you. The reason I assumed this band would be great is the consistency of great music they have all released through the years. There is always a lot of heart and soul put into their music from the artwork and packaging to the music itself of course, and then there is the live performance. Who has ever seen a shitty Melvins show? A bad Neurosis show? If you did it was most likely something else causing it, the bands always give 110%.
I’m not that big of a music snob, but I kind of am. With people I know getting into commercial music like Lady Gaga and that kind of thing I have to question their ears sometimes. As much much as I have music on all day and a good amount of it is indeed background music, I still like to hear something that moves me. Modern “dance” music or whatever it is just doesn’t feel right to me. I like some crap you would call commercial pop. But the new stuff is really painful and insulting to me. I don’t know, you can’t call me an old man as I would much rather hear someone screaming unintelligible words with a microphone shoved halfway down their throat at deafening volumes. Seeing a band like this, or musicians like this remind me that there is still good music that can move you. It doesn’t have to have any kind of message, any kind of statement, be any kind of genre, it just needs to BE. This music definitely IS.
Shrinebuilder’s music is pretty dark, but also pretty pos. The artwork on their record reflects this, light on the outside, and dark on the inside. Aside from Dale Crover who seems to be playing a little more of a traditional rock style (and playing a scaled down set compared to what I’ve seen him play countless times with his full time job in the Melvins), Kelly, Wino and Cisneros all pretty much bring exactly what they are known for to the table, but somehow it works when all put together.
I saw the debut Shrinebuilder show back in November at the Viper Room and it was one of the best shows I saw last year. The show was kind of a warm up show, and they played their set twice in a row which was to say the least, awesome. They did what I could tell was pretty much the same set last night. They definitely sounded a little tighter. My one complaint about their album was there are only four songs on it. The album is still long as the songs are long, but seems like they could have fit one or two more on there. The live set consisted of all of the songs from the record, a couple of others I did not recognize, and a cover of Joy Division’s Twenty-Four Hours which was amazing. One of the “unknown” songs was a bluesy song sung by Scott Kelly that could easily be on one of his solo records, a later Neurosis album or just a new original, Definitely sounds like one of his. This song on the setlist was called “Hell” (I think!). At this show it was sung with such emotion and soul you could almost feel the heat coming off of him. “Pyramid of the Moon” this fucking song is so intense, you want it to never end, and it’s actually one of the shorter songs on the album. Live, it’s a monster. Al’s voice is one of my favorite voices in doom/stoner, so I was happy to see him get some time singing on the record and of course live. I never saw Sleep live and never saw Om, so it was cool to see him play bass as well. He is definitely the most energetic of the the three guys up front. Dale Crover is Dale Crover, a monster to watch behind the kit, but watching Al play bass was great, I never realized how great a player he is.
Openers A Storm of Light were great. I love their new record, saying they sound like Neurosis is kind of a cheap way to describe them, but fronted by Neurosis visual dude Josh Graham there is obviously a big influence there. I think their sound is a little more theatrical and arty if that makes sense. Drummer Vinny Signorelli played with Unsane and the Swans....also played in a band way back called The Dots, and his drum set was apparently used during a Bad Brains recording session, hence "The Black Dots". They were tight as hell, but for whatever reason only played about twenty five minutes, leaving the audience slightly confused as they seemed to end just as they started building some intensity.
I hope they announce a Boston show I can see when i return there next month. They have a tour happening but no New England dates that I have seen. Highly recommended show if you are into any of the members’ respective bands.
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