Sunday night brought the Floor show, and as per usual it was me and Rich who seem to be the only 30-something family dudes who are still crazy enough to go see insanely loud music and stay out till all hours of the night. So Rich wanted to see Floor, which is the original band of the lead creative talent for Torch. Totimoshi is one of my favorite heavy acts since I got turned on to them at a Musicfest NW show a few years back. And Norska is a local heavy act that gets opening slots for many of the bigger name doom acts that come through town, and incidentally Norska were recorded by Adam Pike.
So we showed up a touch late, and Norska was already playing. Heavy, doomy, sludgy, metal. You can almost hear their music as power metal but with everything tuned low and slowed down. They play some pretty minimal passages as times. The lead singer/screamer has a great sound for this type of music, and I must say, they sounded great, as in the mix was awesome (sans the floor tom that had a rattle in it), which is so rare for the heavy metal bands. Usually the vocals are nowhere, but here they were right on. Norska also showed some diversity with some faster more progressive passages toward the end of the set. It was clear that these guys can play and can do whatever they want. Great set and mix of material, if you are into the heavy music, you should check Norska out, doing Portland proud as these guys are local.
Next up was Totimoshi. I got turned on to these guys a few years ago when they played at Musicfest NW, at Ash Street no less. I was impressed. Lead by guitarist and song writer Antonio "Tony" Aguilar, Totimoshi plays a sort of precision-crafted heavy rock. They were on tour with the Melvins for a while and get comparisons with the aforementioned and with Black Sabbath, but of course, Black Sabbath's name gets thrown around both in influences and comparisons, but I find most of those comparisons lacking. Anyway, always a good show, though the sound was somewhat lacking, moving up toward the front of the stage allowed me to hear more guitar. I like the Milagrosa Album and also Ladrón, but haven't dug much further into their back catalog. The set was energetic with a good mix of songs. Totimoshi's drummer Chris Fugittis was awesome. With the use of space, by which I mean using rests, the drums need to be precise for the music to work, and Fugittis did not disappoint. Meg Castellanos rounds out the line up on bass, and she is a solid player. Castellanos also was singing some backup, but it was nowhere to be found in the mix. It was a good set, but none of their shows seem to have compared to the first time I saw them a few years ago. Not sure why.
After a bit, Floor came out, and they seemed to be who the crowd was there to see. I only knew of Floor through Steve Brooks, who leads Torche, and mostly because of my friend Rich turning me on to Torche. Floor put on an interesting set of songs that ran the gamut from doomy to more upbeat, driving numbers. Not being familiar with their material, I found the diversity and coverage of different genre influences to be intriguing. Some of the songs I really dug, and other did not move me much. It was all heavy rock, and the dual guitars did not seem to need the addition of bass. These guys do tune down low, I believe to A, and that somewhat negates the need for bass. Henry Wilson, apparently not an original member, was on drums, playing a minimal kit, but very large and authoritative. Solid playing all around from Floor. I felt a little out of place when Brooks was inviting the crowd to sing along to a song I had never heard before. It never ceases to amaze me that a band can play for decades, clearly have a devoted following, and someone like myself who is always on the look out for new music to listen to has not heard of them.
Being a weeknight, I had to skip any after show snacks and head back to the house. It was a good show though, no doubt, worth going to even though it was a week night.
So we showed up a touch late, and Norska was already playing. Heavy, doomy, sludgy, metal. You can almost hear their music as power metal but with everything tuned low and slowed down. They play some pretty minimal passages as times. The lead singer/screamer has a great sound for this type of music, and I must say, they sounded great, as in the mix was awesome (sans the floor tom that had a rattle in it), which is so rare for the heavy metal bands. Usually the vocals are nowhere, but here they were right on. Norska also showed some diversity with some faster more progressive passages toward the end of the set. It was clear that these guys can play and can do whatever they want. Great set and mix of material, if you are into the heavy music, you should check Norska out, doing Portland proud as these guys are local.
Next up was Totimoshi. I got turned on to these guys a few years ago when they played at Musicfest NW, at Ash Street no less. I was impressed. Lead by guitarist and song writer Antonio "Tony" Aguilar, Totimoshi plays a sort of precision-crafted heavy rock. They were on tour with the Melvins for a while and get comparisons with the aforementioned and with Black Sabbath, but of course, Black Sabbath's name gets thrown around both in influences and comparisons, but I find most of those comparisons lacking. Anyway, always a good show, though the sound was somewhat lacking, moving up toward the front of the stage allowed me to hear more guitar. I like the Milagrosa Album and also Ladrón, but haven't dug much further into their back catalog. The set was energetic with a good mix of songs. Totimoshi's drummer Chris Fugittis was awesome. With the use of space, by which I mean using rests, the drums need to be precise for the music to work, and Fugittis did not disappoint. Meg Castellanos rounds out the line up on bass, and she is a solid player. Castellanos also was singing some backup, but it was nowhere to be found in the mix. It was a good set, but none of their shows seem to have compared to the first time I saw them a few years ago. Not sure why.
After a bit, Floor came out, and they seemed to be who the crowd was there to see. I only knew of Floor through Steve Brooks, who leads Torche, and mostly because of my friend Rich turning me on to Torche. Floor put on an interesting set of songs that ran the gamut from doomy to more upbeat, driving numbers. Not being familiar with their material, I found the diversity and coverage of different genre influences to be intriguing. Some of the songs I really dug, and other did not move me much. It was all heavy rock, and the dual guitars did not seem to need the addition of bass. These guys do tune down low, I believe to A, and that somewhat negates the need for bass. Henry Wilson, apparently not an original member, was on drums, playing a minimal kit, but very large and authoritative. Solid playing all around from Floor. I felt a little out of place when Brooks was inviting the crowd to sing along to a song I had never heard before. It never ceases to amaze me that a band can play for decades, clearly have a devoted following, and someone like myself who is always on the look out for new music to listen to has not heard of them.
Being a weeknight, I had to skip any after show snacks and head back to the house. It was a good show though, no doubt, worth going to even though it was a week night.
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