So the Metalliance tour rolled through Portland last Thursday, and the line up was more than enough to get me there. I have been wanting to see Kylesa for a while given the buzz and hearing their albums, and have not been able to catch them here in Portland. This show has a jam packed line up:
Atlas Moth
Howl
Red Fang
Kylesa
Crowbar
Saint Vitus
Helmet
With Helmet performing Meantime in it's entirety. More on that later. But damn, this show started at 6:40. I didn't have a chance to check the bands out I didn't know, so I was going in a little blind. Since I have a job, getting there at 6:40 was a challenge, and we ended up missing the first band due to a need for some food. We got there and headed up stairs for a brew and to watch Howl since we had missed Atlas Moth.
Howl, hum, they could play, but I had some issues with these guys musically. Traditional sort of line up, but I didn't hear anything new or different from these guys. It was straight froward, 80s influenced rock with cookie monster vocals and no space what so ever. I found it very straight forward music. Everything was on the beat. The "lead" guitar player in fact looked like he had done nothing but get tattoos and go to maiden concerts his whole life. His lead playing was lack luster, and what he did play was buried in the mix. Yawn, are these guys really worthy of being on this tour? The set was a short 20 minutes, which was fine by me. I will give Howl points for some awesome merch, a kick ass art work. But for me, give me the music over good art. I only want the merch if the band is good.
So a word about the sound. Now Roseland has one of the best tuned sound systems, period. It can sound awesome in there with a knowledgable person behind the board. So what is up with the kick drum? They had the kick drum turned up so loud, it was literally making my eyes water as the low end pulsated my eyeballs. Yes, it's impressive display of subwoofer prowess, but it detracts from the music. When you overload a room acoustically with low end, everything gets muddy. This problem persisted the entire night and seemed to be more philosophical on the part of the soundman. Just cause it is metal, does not mean you need to bludgeon the audience with bass.
After a quick change over was local favorites, Red Fang, sure to deliver. Red Fang is a great band. They rock, and tonight was no exception. They played their newish single Wires, and some tracks off both the old and soon to be released record. Always tight, always punchy, always with great sound all around. You hear everything, and they have space. When the band drops out and leave Bryan playing the main riff during Wires, you know what separated Red Fang form the pack, they know how to leave space. It makes for good dynamics and generally makes the music more interesting. Next Red Fang brought out Scott Weinrich for a song. I couldn't really hear much of what he was doing vocally, but it was worth mentioning.
And as would be expected, Red Fang closed with Prehistoric Dog. It really is a great song, catchy riffs, good dynamics, interestingly put together, catchy as fuck. Honestly, it was the best song played all night. Though, Red Fang has been riding this song for a while now. I can't help but ask myself, is this song a fluke? Did the boys just get real lucky in writing such a kick ass song? There are other good songs on the first album, but none as memorable as Prehistoric Dog. Now I don't mean any disrespect, Red Fang is a great band either way, but I have heard the new album and it does not seem to have song writing of the caliber of Prehistoric Dog. More songs that good could propel Red Fang to a much wider audience. I will say that I will be at the Murder Mountain release show at Branx. I tend to enjoy Red Fang more live that their recorded material anyway.
Next up was Kylesa. I saw the therman being set up, and the two drummers, and well, I was excited. I had heard both of Kylesa's albums and liked them, but due to rampant computer issues this winter, I have not had the albums on my phone to listen to, so I don't know the albums by heart. The show started off with some trippy keyboard and delay type sounds from Corey Barhorst, Kylesa's bass player, and I realized immediately that Kylesa was right up my ally. The proceeded to rip through a set of kick ass psychedelic stoner metal. There were some therman atmospheric moments from guitarist Phillip Cope, trippy keyboard atmospherics, along with crushing brutal moments. The two drummers played together nicely and enhanced the drums rather than getting in each others way or sounding over played. Laura Pleasant's played some excellent guitars, and displayed a mellower, reduced psychedelic playing style that, well kind of reminded me of the way I play leads. It wasn't overly flashy playing, but solid, and great for the songs. I have to say though, all in all I was not blown away.
Afterward a friend who knows Kylessa's material better said that they played everything faster than on the albumes. Perhaps it was to squeeze more tunes into their time slot, but as any player knows, shifting the tempo of a song can dramatically change it's emotional impact, as the phrasing tends to work better at a specific tempo (one of the reasons why drummer's that wander are the worst!). In any event, that could explain a lot. I would like to see Kylesa again, preferably on a bill with fewer bands.
Next up was Crowbar, who to be honest I had never head of before this show, and I suspect it is because they are considered sludge metal, and personally, I am not a fan of sludge metal, at least not of the music I have heard refereed to as sludge metal. I do like the Melvins, but I think they transcend being called sludge metal with the wide variety of material they have put out. Anyway Crowbar wasn't terrible, but once again, no space, everything was filled. Additionally everything, vocals, guitars, was in the lower registers. I thought they would have been really good with a high wailing type singer. Maybe it was the overwhelming bass/kick drum, but it just all sounded muddy, and well sludgy I suppose. Maybe that's the point, and I am just not into it. Next please?
Saint Vitus was up next. I had heard about Saint Vitus in search of new music to check out years ago, along with Pentagram as sort of the second generation of heavy metal spawned by Black Sabbath. I found some Saint Vitus, and honestly, never purchased any. Guess I wasn't that impressed. So sometimes, the live show blows the recordings out of the water. In this case, I don't really have a lot to say. In fact, I don't have much recollection of the show, it was not very memorable for me. I guess I would say straight forward rock with raspy vocals? I guess another band that I didn't get. Ok, moving on.
Finally, Helmet was up. I will confess, I liked Helemt's Meantime album quite a bit when it came out. Yes, I was being fed what every American youth was gobbling up at the time, whatever MTV was playing, which mostly was grunge. I liked that Meantime was different. I never really thought of the album as metal, more heavy alternative rock. In retrospect, I feel like Meantime was really ahead of it's time. So many metal bands now sound similar to what Helmet was doing 20 years ago. Meantime and the band really were ahead of their time and a ground breaking act for 1992. Hard to believe they wrote that album post the glam/hair rock era. Also worth noting is that Page Hamilton grew up in Portland, though moved to NYC. Never knew that one till a few years ago, but I still remember seeing the images of Mt St Helen's erupting growing up in Alabama and thinking "There are Volcanoes in America?," I only knew the NW as where grunge came from at the time.
Anyway, Page was rocking a pink Ibanez, probably the least metal guitar one can imagine, but the band sounded tight. I though the opening track In The Meantime, which was one of my two favorites from Meantime (the other being Ironhead) was somewhat lack luster for a reason I can't quite put a finger on. Things did pick up though, and I realized one thing I really like about this album is the space. When the guitar adds rests to emphasize the rhythms, it is excellent. Really awesome, and so many metal bands these days could make their music vastly more interesting to me by employing rests. As the album went on, I was not quite able to sing along, but the show was really good. Gotta admit, I was pretty tired by this time, and seeing the kids in the mosh pit both brought back memories, and made me feel old since I felt like I would collapse expending that kind of energy after my day. Helmet finished up meantime and did a few more songs, gotta be honest, I don't know much of Helmet beyond Meantime, but it was a solid show, and gotta give Helmet respect. They deserve more than they have gotten in accolades and definitely showed they should be headlining this touring metal show.
Afterward we headed over to Dante's to grab a late night slice, resisting the call of the sweet decadence of Voodoo across the street, for once.......
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