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:
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.
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.)
