0 [VIDEO] Converge / Black Breath @ Neumos (5/13/10)

Words and Videos by Nik Christofferson

Converge was in town on May 13th and sharing a stage with them was a stellar supporting cast that included Coalesce (who played their first Seattle show in 8 years), current local metal saviors Black Breath, hardcore outfit Touché’ Amore, and local noise addicts Great Falls. Black Breath stirred the pot with their scorching brand of blacken thrash, turning the floor at Neumos into a sea of hair and limbs. This was their night, their show-- easily overshadowing Coalesce’s return and Converge’s legendary status. Converge frontman Jacob Bannon even proudly stated that Black Breath was his current favorite band, a nod they certainly deserved after their 30 minutes left the pit a huddled mass of destruction. Converge came out swinging of course, inciting the pure riotous mayhem that is only available during a Converge performance. The stage divers took over and even Himsa/Heiress frontman John Pettibone hopped on stage after Bannon dedicated the set to the revered local screamer. Metal shows of this caliber are unfortunately few and far between, and some pretty chaotic and amazing shit went down. If you missed it, here are a couple videos to prove my point.

0 [LIVE REVIEW] Red Sparowes / Caspian @ Neumos (4/29/10)

Words and Videos by Nik Christofferson

Back on the 29th of April, LA post-rock quintet Red Sparowes along with Massachusetts natives Caspian took over Neumos for an overall enjoyable, sometimes epic, but as you would expect mostly yawn-filled evening of post-rock. Both bands are on tour in support of solid and relatively recent releases. Red Sparowes made available ”The Fear is Excruciating, but Therein Lies the Answer” via Sargent House earlier in the year, and Caspian dropped “Tertia” in late 2009. Both are well respected in their field, but it was Caspian who stole the show by shear deafening force and killer light show. While gangly guitarist Philip Jamieson and company unleashed massive waves of core shaking beauty, Red Sparowes effortlessly played nice instead, with their typical heavy mellow vibe. Not having the same complete annihilation quality as Caspian, Red Sparowes just couldn’t hold my attention as the “shit, it’s way past my bedtime” thoughts distracted from an otherwise flawless performance. I can tell you the crowd was certainly stoked on everything they were hearing. I’m even listening to ”The Fear is Excruciating, but Therein Lies the Answer” on vinyl as I write this, and damn is it great-- in the right context of course.

There are a number of talented bands currently boasting the sonically heavy instrumental sound commonly associated with the silly sub-genres of post-rock and post-metal, too bad most are just too boring to watch live; unless of course your name is Russian Circles. So for my next post-rock experience, I will be setting the mood by bringing with me to the venue a comfy lawn chair, blanket, and maybe, just maybe my own personal morphine drip bag to enhance the malaise.

The much hyped Fang Island opened with I’m hoping at least somewhere close to as much enthusiasm contained on their breakout self-titled record. I was tardy and missed’em. Bummer.