stories
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SUNN O))) Live: Sunn O))), Earth, Eagle Twin, Pelican Story online since: 21.08.2009 / 03:26:03 .........................................................................................................................................................  Sunn O))) at Neumo's was a great show. They were trying out new music from MONOLITHS & DIMENSIONS and it came across really well live. Maintaining the darkness, the band's music is more dynamic now--there's more crescendos and releases; more softness to go with the heaviness. It makes for a more complete and satisfying show experience. They even went into the riff from HUNTING&GATHERING (Cydonia), which was my favorite part of the show. Played even slower than the album version, it took on a more organic feel and was very fun to head bang to really slowly. Basically they played the first three songs off that album, in the form of one long, never-ending experimental piece. It's sort of like a classical piece, it's so long. They still didn't touch on the fourth song on the album, and the show was still over an hour. Sunn O))) is a dynamic enough band to be able to play album material way differently than it sounds on the album, and still be so comfortable live.  My personal favorite part of M&D is the second song, BIG CHURCH, with the seven-member alto choir. Live, Steve Moore filled in those parts with his keyboard, but in a different rhythm. I must admit, it might not have been Moore; I couldn't see behind the smoke. Nonetheless, the song was a similar enough re-creation of the album version, but different enough to lend the piece a more experimental nature. When Sunn O))) plays live, all rules are defenestrated. Their music manifests the nature of an evolving beast.  Attila Csihar was amazing that night. It is clear why he has become a regular band member--he adds a very cool dynamic to the band. He uses his voice with a mind to high art; to representing the unattainable. He employed spoken word, chanting, singing, and at the end, incredibly brutal black metal screaming. He also put on a scary mask that looked like an alien burn victim dripping flesh. It was awesome. After the show had been going for a good while, he turned his back to the crowd and knelt down. I couldn't see him from where I was standing. A few minutes go by and he slowly stands up and turns around, his head down the whole time. Mind you, he's got the Sunn O))) signature druid robe on, so his face is hidden. Suddenly, he lifts his head, exposing his freaky mask, and shrieks really hard. The crowd instantly responds with devil horns all around; it scared the shit out of me and a friend I was at the show with. It was metal as hell.   Csihar's voice has a deep baritone quality, and with the volume up so high his voice filled the room like a bass guitar. His chanting sounded like, "tao, tao, doom! tao, tao, soom!" and on the dooms and sooms his voice sounded like explosions that vibrated my chest and skull. Indeed, Sunn O)))'s sound is about more than audial perception--it's about feeling the music with all of your body. They turn the volume up so loud, and play such heavily distorted bass drones, the sounds become a physical presence. I've heard SOMA and Anderson say in an interview that they named their band Sunn O))) as both tribute to the band Earth and the amplifier brand, and to convey the power of something as huge, powerful, and unearthly as a star. I think they have achieved that. All I know is that both times I have seen this band, the powerful, uninterrupted vibrations made me queasy. It's definitely a test of one's mettle to sit through a whole Sunn O))) show.  Earth played second of the four bands on the bill, and they were spectacular. The Seattle pride was abundant in the room as the crowd was very loud and supportive of their native front man Dylan Carlson. Earth's slow, droning Americana sound came across very well live. Earth albums are fun to listen to at home, when you need some peaceful time to yourself. But live at Neumo's, they had energy, and the crowd ate it up. For a band that doesn't necessarily "rock out," they really held the crowd's attention. What they do is as innovative as Sunn O))), but they hold out on the exciting live visuals, preferring to invoke visions with their sounds.  Just before they went on, I saw Kim Thayil walking towards me in a hallway of the venue. "Kim Thayil!" I said as we passed. "I loved you in Soundgarden!" I looked back, and he gave me a nod. Then someone I didn't see yelled, "Never heard that before!" Dick. Opening the concert was Eagle Twin, a two-piece outfit featuring Gentry Densley (Iceburn, Ascend) on an extremely downtuned guitar and Tyler Smith on drums. It was very Melvins-influenced, with even more doom. If I knew anything about Iceburn (which existed from 1991 �" 2001, according to Southern Lord Records' website), I could tell how Eagle Twin has possibly evolved from Iceburn. Alas, I'm still an Iceburn virgin. But I liked Eagle Twin a lot at the show.  Densley's voice was recognizable from the Ascend album he created with Greg Anderson, but Eagle Twin's music is more rock-oriented than Ascend's experimental sounds. Not to say that Eagle Twin is straight rock music, but the songs are comprised of riffs that stand alone like juggernauts. For just having one guitar, the sound Densley made with that guitar was very low-pitched, and full--it sounded like both a guitar and bass guitar were playing at the same time. It was a surrounding presence, his guitar sound. Beautiful stuff, in a doomy, grinding way. One injustice to me at the show was that Pelican was allowed to share the stage; another was that they got to play after two better bands, Eagle Twin and Earth. Pelican played mid-tempo, boring songs. The guitars are down-tuned, and the music does hint at doom metal. But a hint is only that, and the band doesn't follow through with it. Before the show, I checked out Pelican's MySpace page. I wanted to know what they sounded like. On their front page there's a video of the band playing in a forest, and I watched half of it. Boring. I turned it off. What I saw were four young kids playing non-challenging rock music amid some trees, dressed as if they're on their way to high school. The cinematography was alright; it's just that the song is boring and the band is nothing to look at, except they're good at uselessly headbanging while playing. During Earth's set, right before Pelican, there was a tall man at the front of the stage with a big camera, filming the band. I asked him who he was shooting for, and he told me that he was working independently, and was there to shoot Pelican, along with two other cameras on different balcony levels he pointed out to me. Filming Earth was just icing on his cake. He told me he's friends with Pelican and has history with them. Soon after, he told me he directed that Pelican video I saw. It's funny who you meet sometimes. After Pelican was finished, I wandered over to the bar for one of the $4 Pabst Blue Ribbon tallboys, and I heard from my left, "Glenn?!" It was Joe O'Malley, SOMA's brother. I had not seen him in about seven months. He told me that he was going to be helping out with the Sunn O))) tour, riding in the van and living the hard life. I had met Joe while attending college up in Bellingham, WA. He was part of the Western Washington Metal and Hardcore club. I set up an interview with the club's founder, with whom Joe lived and played in a two-piece doom metal band. During the interview in their house's crappy basement (which they moved out of since then), I mentioned the Sunn amp sitting there, and the three of us got to talking about the band Sunn O))), and Joe mentions in passing that he's Steven O'Malley's brother. I couldn't believe it; what a chance encounter. It's amazing who you meet sometimes. Joe and I became friends in Bellingham through our mutual love of really heavy, dark metal. He turned me on to the bands Coffins, Circle, Nifelheim, and Deathspell Omega. I introduced him to Zeni Geva. The tour is over, and Joe is now back in Bellingham to finish school and graduate soon. The tour was rigorous, he said. "It was lots of van driving. There's not really any downtime," Joe said on the phone August 16. "You drive for ten hours, set everything up, crash in the morning, get up and do it again." I'm still jealous. He helped out at two Sunn O))) shows in Seattle, then San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, and Salt Lake City. All in all, it was a fun night out in Seattle. I saw some celebrities, and some old friends. I even got a Sunn O))) cassette tape of a live recording of the Grimm Robe Demos from last year. Yes, a cassette--for $5! I love this band, but they will never get as famous as I'd like them to be. Maybe they should get sponsored by Disney and have a bunch of live dancers at the show. Glenn Doom |
