It's been a month since this show, so this one's going to suck a little.

[106] Norska, Rabbits, YOB (2011)

I have been waiting for Rabbits to release an album for too long now. The one EP I found ages ago sounded bad, doing them no justice. I had to rely on the live experience of the band which, as you may know, hadn't turned out so well. The first few times I saw them was when I really wanted to see some other band playing after them, meaning I didn't approach them with full attention and felt passive aggressive and impatient about their set. Being local and sort of similar to other bands I listen to, I wanted to like them, but not like that. I hoped a proper album would make the difference.

Around the same time that I heard that they were signed to Relapse, I finally saw Rabbits at a good time. After two hours of Salvador and Diesto's mutual slow and slower doom, Rabbits' heavy psychosis was fully welcome, sounded perfect for the venue, and was probably the best way to end the night short of punching a stoner in the face.

This show - meaning YOB, Rabbits, and Norksa - was Rabbits' official CD/LP release for their new album Lower Forms. For all my ADD and trouble with the band before, I was looking forward to it.

As you might be able to guess, they played the whole thing start to finish, all ten songs and 40-something minutes. It was a bit overkill for a relative newbie who doesn't listen to any other band quite like Rabbits. Still, I got to learn I knew their music better than I thought I did. "Burn, Sun, Burn" was instantly recognized from some internet samplings. I'd also already heard "Duck, The Pigs" online. A few other songs I'd already heard live at their previous November show, possibly even earlier, such as "We Beat" and "A Tale of Tales".

That said, I think my favorite song of the lot was "No Depth"... the shortest song on the album (59 seconds!), perhaps a reflection of my amazing attention span.

With Rabbits being more familiar than I expected, I was surprised that others near me didn't seem to know them and a local music fan even straight up said that they had never seen them live before. This subdued sort of vibe was not the case at previous Rabbits shows, so I wondered if maybe the vast majority of the audience were YOB fans... But, with their recent press and attention, I may have just been standing in the wrong spot.

I don't have tons say about YOB's set, but I'll tell you one thing that threw me off course... Mike fucking hugged me. Now, I'm not into YOB the way some folks are and I'd probably have died if it were someone like Buzz Osborne or Maynard, but that kind of friendliness just does not compute for me. I expect musicians to be anti-social dicks. Especially in recent months, any little bit of respect, honest friendliness, and social appreciation I've gotten in this field has meant a lot. That I got a hug for no good reason by someone I barely know who I've seen be nothing but nice to me and others, musician or otherwise, was really uplifting.

YOB started with a new song that sounded very much like another YOB song. Maybe it was just my closest neighbors, maybe it was the novelty, maybe it was the moon, but something felt oddly disconnected about their crowd right off - they were attentive but not. It took a bit of time before people really started to seem on the same page. By then, though, my limited view and the imperfect sound of the venue resulted in other thoughts, like my last two, both great YOB shows, and how next time I see this band I should make a point to watch them from the front of the stage so I'm not so psychologically distracted by my asshole neighbors.

Nevertheless, YOB went all out with their set, playing three songs totaling 45 minutes after the first new song, taking a little break, and coming back with another block of three or four. The second to last song had Stevie from Dark Castle on vocals. While only nine songs, they were on stage at least and hour and a half... Excellent number, methinks. Their set even included "Exorcism of the Host" which Mike said they hadn't played live since 2005. Yikes.

Featuring the same bassist as YOB, Norska opened this show. They have a familiar doom/sludge but still challenging sound that's like a cross between YOB and Isle of Marauder-era Diesto. Technically this was also an album release show for them - I bought a copy, you can, too.

I've only seen Norska play to tiny, 30 person or less audiences, so seeing them on stage in front of a couple hundred was refreshing and new. I didn't listen to or pay any attention to their kind of sound before a few years ago but I wondered where that size crowd stacked up to their show history. In any case, I think I was actually most excited about their set, especially once they played their last song "They Mostly Come At Night" (Sounds harsh. I hope they leave money on the nightstand when they do). It had a "big finish", har har.

This was a work night for me and consequently I got to get to know the crowd even better after-the-fact. There was a pretty even mixture of men/women at this show. At my last Norska show I complained about there being almost no women in the building and there weren't too many at my second-to-last YOB show, either. Perhaps this had to do with proximity to Valentine's Day, or the crowd size (a few hundred), or maybe these bands are "branching out", so to speak. Either way, good to see.

In conclusion, between Norska and Rabbits, I now have two new albums to lose in my collection. Yay!