(05.01.2012) Meshuggah + Baroness @ Emo's, Austin

To say I've been waiting a long time to see Meshuggah would be a major understatement.  10 years ago, right after moving to Austin, one of my newly made friends here asked if I wanted to come check out a show, a band from Sweden who had just put out an album called Nothing.  When I asked about their sound, he paused and just said "Man, its their own thing.  But heavy.  Really f***ing heavy."  So, I checked it out, and there, in the confines of the Stubb's basement, I had my ears and mind completely blown.  Call it "djent", call it "math metal", whatever floats your boat.  The syncopated guitar riffs, odd time signatures, furious but deliberate rhythm...I had never heard anything like it.  From that moment on, they've held a permanent position as one of my all-time favorite 4 or 5 bands.

Since then, I've had nothing but bad luck trying to catch them again.  After releasing Catch Thirty-Three, they came through Austin, but I was out of town.  A few years later, on the heels of the monstrous obZen release, they came through again, this time opening for Ministry on their C U LaTour.  Finally, I had tickets in my hand and was ready to go.  Except, the day of the show, this happened:

(The only thing in the world worth missing Meshuggah for.)

So, this year I left nothing to chance.  After hearing that they'd be coming through again, this time in support of their latest album, Koloss, I snagged a ticket as quickly as I could and began counting the days.  And since all desired rugrat-production in my household has now been concluded, there was nothing to stop me from re-uniting with my long lost Swedish friends, and having my mind blown all over again.

And that is EXACTLY what happened.  Last night's show was nothing short of EPIC.  Meshuggah put on a sonic and visual performance that defies comprehension.  But, we'll get to that.  First things first.

Another added bonus of this particular show is that Baroness was slated to provide support as an opener.  I randomly caught them as an opener for someone (Isis or The Sword, I think) sometime back around 2005'ish, and I've always dug their sound.  Their 2010 release Blue Record has really grown on me the past couple years, and the recent news is that they've got a new double-album called Yellow & Green coming out this summer, so I was pretty pumped to see them live again.  (Decapitated was also on the bill, playing before Baroness.  A couple friends recommended that I get there in time to catch them, and I tried.  Alas, I had a hockey game before that I squeezed in, and I tried to make it, but they just wrapped up as I was getting to the Will Call window.  Doh.  On the bright side, at least I skated my ass off and picked up a goal and an assist.)

Here is Baroness' set:

(Ogeechee Hymnal Intro)
01. A Horse Called Golgotha
02. March To The Sea*
03. Steel That Sleeps The Eye
04. Swollen And Halo
05. The Gnashing
06. Take My Bones Away*
07. The Sweetest Curse
08. Isak
* New tracks from Yellow & Green (titles confirmed through MetalSucks.net)

They got a great reaction from the crowd when they took the stage, so you could tell a lot of people were familiar with Baroness and excited to see them play.  Overall, they did an admirable job, especially considering they clocked in at just 45 minutes.  "A Horse Called Golgotha" and "Swollen And Halo" are my two favorite tracks from Blue Record, so I was stoked about hearing those, and they absolutely slayed "The Gnashing".  The version of "Steel That Sleeps The Eye" was pretty interesting.  It was much longer than on the album, very mellow and chill, with frontman John Baizley showing a softer, more earnest side.  While I liked it, it did drag a little, almost a full 5 minutes, and they were beginning to lose the crowd a bit before it thankfully segued into the romping "Swollen And Halo".  The new material was a little hit or miss.  "March To The Sea" really didn't grab me, I thought it lacked a bit of punch.  "Take My Bones Away" was much better; while some of the vocal melody stuff was just OK, the song had more than enough shredding to make up for it.  Finishing with "The Sweetest Curse" and "Isak" was a little bit of a disappointment, since I could really take or leave both of those songs.  I would easily have traded one or both of them for a couple Red Album classics like "Rays On Pinion", "Wailing Wintry Wind", or "Aleph".  So, as it was, the set ended on a little bit of a lame note for me personally, but overall I was still plenty satisfied with it.  I'll be very interested to see them again if they come back through as a headliner after Yellow & Green comes out.

But really, we're here to talk about Meshuggah.  The anticipation before they came out was palpable.  There were these 3 large backdrops: 1 humongous drop from floor to ceiling in the back, and 2 smaller ones one either side of the stage, and closer to the front, all of them gorgeous replications of the Koloss artwork.  After the techs came out for about 20 minutes to make sure everything was set up right, they lit up the drops with this soft red and blue glow.  After a couple minutes of taking in such a gorgeous setup, "Obsidian" slowly faded in, its eerie tones slowly building until the crowd was about to explode.  Finally, the boys from Sweden took the stage, looking like an army of Vikings ready to pillage and plunder.  They calmly crunched out the heavy, dissonant chords that conclude the track, their demeanor totally deadpan.  Then they launched into "Demiurge", and a night of devastating glory ensued.

(Kicking into "Demiurge".  Ready...set...SCOWL!!)

Setlist:

(Obsidian Intro)
01. Demiurge
02. Pravus
03. Combustion
04. Glints Collide
05. Lethargica
06. Do Not Look Down
07. The Hurt That Finds You First
08. Mind's Mirrors
09. In Death-Is Life/In Death-Is Death
10. Bleed
11. New Millenium Cyanide Christ
12. I Am Colossus
13. Rational Gaze
(break)
14. Future Breed Machine
15. Dancers To A Discordant System
(The Last Vigil Outtro)

I'm finding it hard to process how incredibly good every aspect of this show was.  Aside from the absurd wish that the band could play every single awesome song they've ever written, there isn't a single detail I would change.  The sound was impeccable!  I will go out on a limb and say that, considering Meshuggah's enormity of sound yet subtlety of texture, this was the best live audio setup I've experienced to date (only other show that compares is the one time I saw Neurosis, and that is a hell of a compliment).  Even in the thick of the fury, with Jens screaming, Tomas Haake maintaining not one but two simultaneous super-human rhythms, and Thordendal and Hagstrom bludgeoning heavy crunch out of those 8-string Ibanez beasts, every nuance was discernible.  And when Thordendal would drop the low-end out in favor of some meticulous off-key solo'ing, the sudden clarity was almost overwhelming.  The fact that they were able to capture such a dynamic range and still keep it all clean was astounding, almost as impressive as the performance itself, and equally to credit for the immeasurable impact of the show overall.

(Jens:  "Are those glints colliding?  Yes. Yes, I do believe they are in fact colliding.")

Just as impressive was the visual display they put forth.  They only implemented lighting, no lasers or videos or anything like that, but the effects they were able to achieve were incredible.  The several assemblies allowed them to illuminate or darken different portions of the stage or backdrops independently.  Every song had its own unique lighting sequence, timed perfectly to the music to add emphasis.  Quite often this worked to give the band members a fairly menacing silhouette, which felt pretty appropriate.  The only downside of all of this is that it was damn near impossible to see with any detail the abuse Haake was subjecting his kit to in the back.

(Occasionally we could catch a glimpse of Haake.  Hey, there he is!)

(But most of the time, he was lost in the background.  Where'd he go?)

Haake was tough to read, since we couldn't see him much.  My feeling is that he was all business back there.  But the demeanor of the rest of the band was overall a kind of menacing, grooving, stoicism.  Thordendal and Hagstrom were firmly entrenched in their positions at stage-right and stage-left, respectively.  Lovgren was more or less in the middle, and he tended to meander a little bit, depending on where Jens was at the time.  There was no wild and crazy thrashing or hair-swirling from these three, no superfluous showmanship.  There was just the constant groove, the careful and deliberate channeling of a power and intensity above such antics.  These guys were deep in the zone, occasionally giving in to the riff just enough for single, slow motion lean-back and/or headbang.  Jens was pretty mobile, lording over the proceedings in dominating fashion.  But, in keeping with nature of the band, his activity was always very calculated, deliberate, and controlled.  He was not unlike The Terminator, stalking slowly along the front of the stage, surveying the crowd with his quirky, bird-like, quantum head movements.  Also, there was plenty of his patented arms-out-away-from-his-body stance.  Sometimes elbows out and palms in, arms pumping down, as if to say "we have the power to crush you!"  Other times elbows down and palms up, arms pumping up, as if to say "we have the power to lift you!"  Either way, I'm not arguing.

The set they put together for this show was utterly magnificent.  Of course, the last 2 albums got the most coverage, with 4 tracks from the new album and a blistering 5 from obZen, but the older stuff was represented incredibly well.  Opening with the "Obsidian" intro was very fitting, and their rendition of "Glints Collide" was stout.  Older classics "Future Breed Machine" and "Rational Gaze" were devastating, and "New Millenium Cyanide Christ" got the crowd into a total frenzy.  But the real shocker was the unbelievable, and completely unexpected, performance of Catch Thirty-Three's centerpiece, "Mind's Mirrors/In Death-Is Life/In Death-Is Death".  As the opening punched chords of "Mind's Mirrors" rang through the venue, everyone had a look of disbelief on their faces, myself included.  Then the isolated computerized vocals kicked in, and it finally sunk in that something incredible was about to occur. As they reached the eerie individual notes that round out the song, I still found myself doubting where they were going to go from there.  But then, to everyone's glee, they launched full force into "In Death-Is Life".  After such a perfectly placed mellow interlude, such an abrupt explosion just about tore the place apart.  The next 10 minutes were a euphoric blend of calculated shifting rhythm and jazz-infused bass noodling.  Alas, they did skip the lighter, somewhat creepy guitar work that constitutes final 5-6 minutes of the song's album rendition, but no complaints here.  While it might have been really cool to hear, putting in another extended calm interlude at this point probably would have been detrimental to the pace of the show.  As it was, the song was executed to perfection, I still can't believe they pulled that one out.

("Bleed".  Hence all the red.)

The new Koloss material sounded fantastic, I think I'll like it even more now that I will associate this live performance with it.  "Demiurge" got the show started off on exactly the right foot with its steady, slickly sliding riff, showcasing the perfect combination of power and control.  "The Hurt That Finds You First" was damn impressive, from its full speed break-neck pace to its hauntingly deliberate broken down outtro (which led immaculately into the "Mind's Mirror's" interlude).  "Do Not Look Down" and "I Am Colossus" fit in nicely, as well, offering up some satisfyingly meaty crunch.  The obZen selections were nothing short of perfection.  "Combustion", "Bleed", "Pravus", and "Dancers To A Discordant System" are some of my favorite all-time Meshuggah songs, and each one was executed flawlessly.  "Combustion" and "Pravus" were just sick, shining examples of how tight this band remains even at such a frantic pace, and Haake put on a total double bass drum clinic with "Bleed".  But most of all, closing with "Dancers To A Discordant System" totally blew me away.  This is possibly my all-time favorite Meshuggah song, and they just owned the place with it.  I hadn't really considered it before, but the structure of this song makes it a natural closer.  Immediately identified by its off-kilter isolated guitar intro, it had the effect of getting the crowd primed with anticipatory energy before it even kicked in.  The fast but not insane groove that defines the first few minutes lent perfectly to the song's gradually building ferocity, until about halfway through when the song exploded into its crushing breakdown.  The nicely placed soaring yet somewhat mellow guitar work that followed this destructive release was perfect, you could sense the crowd collecting themselves again for one final push.  And of course, this led right back into a reprisal of the legendary rhythm breakdown, blowing the roof off the place.  Finally, the song nicely coasted to its end riding its outbound groove.  It all felt right and complete, a fitting and satisfying 10-minute conclusion to an amazing set.

Speaking to the aura surrounding the band as a whole, they are nothing short of awe-inspiring.  The level of technical skill involved, the originality of the sound and writing, the depth of the texture, and the perfection of the execution...its daunting to digest it all at once.  Meshuggah is quite a unique package:  the progressive vision of Tool, the fury of The Dillinger Escape Plan, the command and control of Neurosis.  Few bands have such gravitas, such undeniable and uncompromising will.  They are dead serious about owning their artform, and this show was a jaw-dropping display of their mastery.

My friends, the Vikings truly have returned to America, and they call themselves.....MESHUGGAH.

(We are Meshuggah.  You've just been pillaged and plundered.)

(04.21.2012) The Sword @ Emo's, Austin

After having seen these home town boys about 10 times during the first few years of their existence (2004-2008'ish), I hit a major drought in my opportunities to catch The Sword.  Such is the price of having kids (me) and experiencing a meteoric rise to stardom (them, not me).  But I was stoked to finally catch them again this past Saturday at the new Emo's here in Austin.

There were a couple openers, American Sharks and Dixie Witch, apparently both local Austin bands.  Neither was particularly noteworthy, although the lead singer of American Sharks provided some pretty good comedic relief with his obvious enthusiasm about opening for The Sword.  Let's just move on to the main attraction.

Setlist:

01. Night City
02. Tres Brujas
03. Freya
04. Hammer Of Heaven*
05. How Heavy This Axe
06. Barael's Blade
07. Cloak Of Feathers*
08. Lawless Lands
09. Maiden, Mother, & Crone
10. To Take The Black
11. Mountain**
12. Tears Of Fire
13. Seven Sisters*
14. Arrows In The Dark
(break)
15. Iron Swan
16. Winter's Wolves
* New song (confirmed title via Bryan Ritchie, the bassist)
** New song (unconfirmed title via the Googles)

That's a decent set, although for me personally it definitely could have been better.  First of all, while I think Warp Riders might be their best album so far, they opened with my 2 least favorite songs from that album (which are also 2 of my 3 least favorite Sword songs overall, with the 3rd being "Ebethron", from Age Of Winters).  In general, I thought their Warp Riders selections could have been much stronger.  And second, I'm really not a huge fan of getting tons of new material live before having heard it recorded.  So, I would have swapped out a few songs, especially if we could have gotten a couple of their longer epics like "The Black River/The White Sea", "Lament Of The Aurochs", or one of the "Chronomancer" tracks.  Something to give the show a little more length would have been nice.  As it was, they blasted through that set in an hour and 20 minutes.

That being said, they covered their whole catalog pretty well, and there was plenty of solid riffage going around.  They absolutely crushed old favorites "Freya", "Barael's Blade", and "Winter's Wolves"; those really got the crowd going.  "To Take The Black" was the best of the Gods Of The Earth offerings, although I thought they cranked out "Maiden, Mother, & Crone" pretty well, too.  The new material didn't blow me away, but its tough (for me, anyway) to gauge new material in a setting like this.  It was pretty meaty, so I look forward to checking it out on their upcoming release.  The highlight of the night for me, though, was "Arrows In The Dark".  That was the first song I really latched onto when first checking out Warp Riders, and I thought they just owned the place with it.

On the technical side, the sound was overall pretty good.  The drums and bass were nicely set up, deep and thunderous.  And when working on a single monolithic riff, the guitars were always crunchy and clear.  There were a couple times when everything got going fast and heavy where the guitars washed out a bit into a wall of noise, but in general they were able to come through reasonably well.  As usual, however, JD's vocals were a bit of a semi-disaster.  For the first few songs, there was clearly something wrong with the mic setup; the vocals were saturating and occasionally cutting in and out, it was actually somewhat distracting.  But eventually they got that sorted out.  The rest of the time, you could tell the plan was to keep his vocals at just the right level where they were audible, but not too audible.  Let's face it, vocals are not the guy's strong suit.  But, aside from the technical issues, it was a typical more-or-less satisfactory JD performance, usually a bit off-pitch but not detrimental to the overall show.

As far as the energy goes, everyone in the building was pretty pumped.  The guys in the band seemed excited to be back in Austin, and they executed with a ton of enthusiasm.  The new drummer and the guitarist Kyle were particularly demonstrative.  In turn, the crowd was thoroughly appreciative of every riff they laid down.  I don't seem to remember this from previous Sword shows, but a pit started up right in front of where we were standing, about 20 feet from the stage.  Normally I find this a bit annoying, but in this case it was more-or-less entertaining.  Mainly a bunch of banging into each other with no real malicious carnage.  It was more of a pretty happy, rocking-out-with-a-tallboy kind of vibe.

So, overall, not one of the best shows I've ever seen, but still plenty enjoyable.  Hopefully it won't be another 3.5 years until the next time I see them!

[Special kudos to my buddy Dennis, who provided a prime example of good parenting by bringing his 13-year-old to the show.  The kid even made a brief foray into the pit before the night was done.  Well done, all around.]

(11.19.2011) Between The Buried And Me @ Emo's, Austin

It is absolutely ludicrous how late I am with this review. Pathetic even. I have no excuse. Well, that's not true. Of course I have an excuse, its just a piss poor one.

Its tough to express how obsessed I've been with Between The Buried And Me the past few years. They've knocked off some major heavyweights (Tool, Opeth, Neurosis, etc) to take the throne as Tedo's Favorite Band. 2007's Colors was one of the best albums I had ever heard, completely un-toppable. Then, of course, they topped it in 2009 with The Great Misdirect (reviewed by yours truly here). At that point I delved more thoroughly into their older, rawer material, and was utterly blown away. Round it out with 2011's spectacular EP release The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, and you've got a Tedo foaming at the mouth to get some live BTBAM action.

For a while though, the boys weren't cooperating. The closest they came to Austin during that stretch was a Dallas show last May. It was a Saturday night, The Ocean was opening (!!), it was the perfect scenario.....except I was in Vegas. Were they taunting me??!! At last, the snubbing came to an end last summer as the crew finally caved and scheduled a November show at the new Emo's East in Austin. I don't remember for certain, but I'm pretty sure that when I found out, I sprang out of my office chair shouting "GUH?!!!" to unsuspecting co-workers who happened to be walking by. I recruited my always open-minded bro-in-law to come share in the night of bludgeonry, and immediately snagged a ticket. I'd be surprised if anyone had theirs booked before I did. There may have been some post-purchase crying too. Again, I'm not certain.

The night of the show rolled around, and I was practically vibrating in anticipation. I don't think I had ever been more excited for a show. But, before the main event, there were a couple openers.

The first opener was new to me, a British band called Tesseract (awesome band name), and I really enjoyed them. They had a Meshuggah'ish djent style rhythm, but with a bit more melody and cleaner vocals. The singer would occasionally go rough, but mostly the vocals were a bit of a drawn out croon. A good analogy would be to say they were akin to a more atmospheric Meshuggah with Thom Yorke vocals. They sounded great, and did an admirable job getting the crowd warmed up. [Note: I have since picked up Tesseract's only LP to date, One, and it is quite good.]

Next up was Animals As Leaders, who I was already somewhat familiar with. They're an instrumental band big on mad virtuoso guitar work. I was very impressed with their set, both sonically and visually. The band was incredibly tight and maintained a frantic pace. Two large screens displayed quickly changing geometrical sequences and patterns, it all had a very mathematical feel that complemented the rhythmic precision of the music perfectly. The crowd was fully appreciative of the set, and really seemed to get into it. Whereas Tesseract had gotten a good groove going with the crowd, Animals As Leaders took the energy to a new level. Exactly what we needed for the impending BTBAM onslaught. [Note: I have also since bought Animals As Leaders' two albums. Their first self-titled album is outstanding. Their second album, Weightless, is decent, but in my opinion not as strong as the first.]

At this point, my head was about to cave in from excitement. My anticipation for the headliner combined with how much I surprisingly liked the openers was beginning to drive away my ability to think clearly. Then Between The Buried And Me took the stage, and my brain truly snapped.

Here's the set:

01. Mirrors
02. Obfuscation
03. Foam Born (b) The Decade Of Statues
04. Disease, Injury, Madness
05. Specular Reflection
06. Medley (Alaska/All Bodies/Arsonist/Shevanel Cut A Flip/Aspirations/Fire For A Dry Mouth/Lost Perfection (b) Anablephobia)
07. Viridian
08. White Walls
09. Mordecai

I've been grappling with how in the hell to approach this particular show review, because quite honestly I don't really have clear memories of very many specific moments (see "piss poor excuse" mentioned above). I do remember looking up at the start and seeing the gong hanging behind Blake's kit and thinking to myself, "yep, this is going to be a good show." After that, the show just melted into one big wall of awesome. But, let's just take the setlist first. Oh my god, what an incredible set that is. I wouldn't change a single thing, I love every track they played. They even nailed me with my three favorite BTBAM songs: "White Walls", "Specular Reflection", and "Disease, Injury, Madness". And I was completely caught off guard by the medley. They had caused rampant speculation before the tour by announcing that fans better dust off the first three albums and study up. I thought maybe we'd get "Alaska", "Lost Perfection", or some "Shevanel", but I never dreamed they would fuse together a 10+ minute monstrosity showcasing the best of all of them. Not many bands could pull that off!

This was actually my first foray into the new Emo's East venue, so I didn't really know what to expect as far as the sound goes. BTBAM has released one live album before, Colors Live, which features superb audio quality. So, my hope was that this would also be the case here, and I was not disappointed in the least. As it was, the sound was incredible. Tommy Rogers' vocals were clear for both the rough sections and the clean, both guitars were right up in the mix, and Blake's drums were absolutely devastating. The bass was the only thing that kind of blended in, but really this isn't much different than how their studio recordings are mixed. In any event, any worry of the sound quality getting in the way of the experience were quickly put to rest.

As I mentioned, I have no previous BTBAM show experience for comparison, so I can't really say how this show stacks up to their others. But I can definitely say this was numero uno in my long, illustrious show-going career. Tommy Rogers was a fist-pumping, red-faced whirling dervish, I have no idea how such a skinny guy rips out vocals like that. Waggoner's fingers were a blur as he blew through insane arpeggio-laden solos, while Dusty kept things nice and zen on the other side of the stage, cranking out the nasty crunchy rhythm. Briggs was the funkiest of the bunch, with that goofy way that he holds his bass mid-chest. By the end of the show he was lifting that thing so high he seemed to be gnawing on it. And what do you say about the drumming? It was the Blake Richardson show, jaw-dropping and inspiring. With how long and frantically chaotic BTBAM's songs typically are, I have no idea how he even remembers how they go, let alone be physically able to execute. Guys like Danny Carey and Brann Dailor get a lot more press, but they've got nothing on this guy.

The energy of the crowd was like nothing I'd ever experienced before. While I'm not much of a mosh pit guy, I can appreciate an enthusiastically aggressive gathering, and this crowd was certainly that. I must admit that as "Mirrors" exploded into "Obfuscation", I was actually caught off guard and almost knocked down as the crowd surged forward to accommodate the pit that had just manifested behind me. After regaining my footing and fighting off a couple goons, I found a nice spot at the back wall of the pit, perfectly positioned about 40 feet from the stage, dead center. From here I was able to take it all in, how the churning mass of humanity before me ebbed and flowed with every change in BTBAM's dynamic pace, alternating between peaceful moments of still, rapt attention, and others of ferocious pummeling bludgeonry. Through it all, though, I never got a feeling of anger, or angst. It was pure high-octane euphoria, a devastating release of happy, positive energy. By the end of the show, I was sweaty, sore, utterly exhausted, and grinning from one deaf ear to the other.

I wish I could remember more specific moments, but there is one that I can recount, and that is the amazing performance of "White Walls". This is my favorite song by my favorite band, and while in a lot of scenarios that math does not necessarily add up to one's favorite overall song, for me it absolutely does. As I heard the mellow intro of "Viridian" kick in, I think every drop of adrenaline and serotonin in my body was simultaneously released, and when it then slid seamlessly into the slick intro of "White Walls", I had no choice but to rush the pit. Standing in one spot nodding my head would not suffice, this called for action! For 15 glorious minutes my head swam as BTBAM took my favorite song, shredded it, shoved in my face, and made it even better. When they landed on the legendary break down and Tommy Rogers began repeatedly ripping "WHIIIIITE WAAAAAALL!!" from his throat, I seriously thought my heart might tear through my chest right then and there. It was greatest live music moment I have yet to experience.

After that, I didn't know what else they could do. I thought for sure they'd end the show on it. But no, they whipped out "Mordecai" and provided a few more minutes of complete and utter domination. I have no idea how I survived.

Best show ever. Best band ever. They can't make it back to Austin soon enough.