[LIVE REVIEW] Shrinebuilder / A Storm of Light / Shining Ones / Heathen Shrine @ Neumos

Review by Matt Abramson
Photos by Nik Christofferson

Shrinebuilder / A Storm of Light / Shining Ones / Heathen Shrine
(Neumos - 3/9/10)

Everyone with even a remote idea of what’s going on in music has been stoked about Shrinebuilder’s first Seattle appearance for months. After all the anticipation, finally all the X’s on my calendar led up to March 9th and I frantically rushed to Capital Hill, nearly had a violent altercation while trying to procure parking yet made it to Neumos with enough time for a couple frosty PBRs before the festivities kicked in.

Opening the night was the fierce, precise death metal of Portland’s Heathen Shrine. They did a fine job and played an enjoyable set. All of the dudes in Heathen Shrine can thoroughly shred and they are worth checking out next time they are up this way.

Next were Shining Ones, rocking glacier-slow funeral-doom-bordering-on-drone metal. The band is now a three piece, following the departure of Demian Johnston (also of Great Falls). They had brutal tone but are clearly still adjusting and super slow metal is difficult to pull off unless it’s totally in the pocket. The highlight of the show was a guitar amp that nearly caught fire, filling Neumos with acrid burnt electrical smoke. A band is doing something right when they catch their shit on fire. That was truly awesome.

A Storm of Light, the brainchild of Neurosis’ visual artist Josh Graham, followed. As would be expected, their set had an absolutely stunning visual accompaniment. The images kept centering on various dilapidated houses during quieter moments, and then would evolve into scenes from cataclysmic natural events and more violent, surreal fare. The bass sound of Domenic Seita was utterly devastating, so loud I could feel my fucking fillings vibrate. For the sake of comparison, the last time this happened was at SunnO))). A Storm of Light pieced together a very well balanced, contemplative set and blew me away, even though I had been looking forward to checking them out.

Finally, the epic Shrinebuilder took the stage. (Side note: if you need the background of the who and what of this group, google it and read one of the bazillion articles on them.) It was very cool to see the guys setting up their own gear, for me it shows a level of involvement with the process of putting on a show that “bigger” bands lack. Eventually, everything was a go and the band started a jam that built into “Science of Anger”, setting the packed Neumos crowd into a frenzy.

There is no clear focal point watching Shrinebuilder. My head felt like an oscillating fan scanning right to left, right to left trying not to miss any highlight of the performance. For my money’s worth, the tandem of Al’s rock-solid bass wizardry and Wino’s tasteful shredding really stood out next to Dale Crover and Scott Kelly’s unrelenting thump. Each song was a few minutes longer than the album version, and made me wish they hadn’t opted to make the songs leaner for release. They also threw in a cover of Joy Division’s “24 Hours”.

By the time the band was five minutes into the set closer “Pyramid of the Moon”, I was sold that this was one of the better single performances to grace our mighty Seattle this year. After all the hoopla surrounding the Shrinebuilder album and this tour, anything less than a flawless performance of the entire record would be pretty disappointing. Fear not, for there was a fantastic amount of ass-kickery that showered onto the helpless ears of the crowd from the stage. It is a truly rare event to see so much lauded, legendary talent share a stage, and in no less than our loudest, best-sounding venue. It will be a while before we see anything this remarkable.

SHRINEBUILDER: