5 LIVE REVIEW: Smooth Sailing / Into the Storm / The Keeper / Mountainss @ Galway Arms (Video)

“Holy Shit! I can’t believe I just witnessed that” were the only words my brain could string together after seeing Smooth Sailing last Thursday at the Galway Arms. The show was the first night of an 11 cities in 11 nights tour for Seattle metal bands Smooth Sailing and Into the Storm.

Starting the night off was The Keeper, a band that I’ve been meaning to see for quite a while now and with them calling it quits in the very near future I figured I’d better get my ass down to the Galway Arms to finally check them out before it’s too late.

I knew The Keeper would put on a good show, but it ended up being a fucking sick show. Lead singer Andrew Chapman took it upon himself to make the entire venue (including outside) his own personal stage. It’s a breath of fresh air watching a front man say “fuck you” to the typical act of standing and screaming from the stage. I know it caught the attention of everybody in the room, and left them asking themselves, “What will he do next?”

This was the Keeper’s third to last show; their final show will be on September 24th at the Comet Tavern. Be there, and if you can’t be there, fuck that, figure out a way to get out and pay your respects to a great local band that is calling it quits way too prematurely.

Next up was the band Mountainss. A two piece Seattle band consisting of a drummer and a bassist, playing some pretty experimental/technical jams with moments of insanity. This band was no Lightning Bolt but enjoyable none the less.

Playing third was Into the Storm. I was pretty excited to check these guys out, I loved the video that Jerry put up (check it out HERE) and I was really digging their album (which you can download for free from their MySpace), but on this particular night they did not appear to be firing on all cylinders. They still played a killer set, and I like the direction their music is heading with the experimental effects and samples, but with multiple obvious screw ups, and an off putting finale that included their bassist sitting on a bar stool watching from the side, it left a little to be desired.

Closing the night was Smooth Sailing. If you’ve seen these guys before I could probably end the review right here, because you already know where I’m going with this. They were absolutely fucking incredible. I don’t think I can describe them musically any better than Nik did already: “mathy and ferocious like Botch, riffsavage like more recent Cave In, melodic like Caspian, and most importantly downright punishing like metal is supposed to be”. That alone was enough to entice me to show up at the venue an hour early, but after seeing them live-- I just might be there 2 hours early next time (and there will be a next time, and a time after that, and a time after that….you get the picture). The band consists of 5 members, 2 guitarists, 2 bassist and a drummer…there’s a lot more I could say about these guy’s live performance but I’ll let the videos below speak for themselves.

Smooth Sailing:

The Keeper:

Mountainss:

Into the Storm:

Words and Video by Palmer Sather