[68] Atriarch, Saviours, Witch Mountain, Ludicra, Yob (2009)

Short review: I thought Trees played last year. SOUPA! Has bass. Fans of Mastodon. Impeccable.

Long review:

I went to bed on time yesterday, but my body disagreed with this idea entirely, so I stayed up another two hours to watch a movie. Normally I can do horror movies no problem, but this one resulted in Really Shitty Sleep. Apparently my subconscious was pissed off with me for doing that. Or just in general. Who knows.

I planned to get to this at doors, but instead I got there about 45 minutes later because I was moving so fucking slow. Oh well. The first band didn't even begin playing until a minute after I showed up, so hey. I win anyway.

My nose, however, didn't win. This place smelled like shit when I walked in. I overheard that it was "sage", but I don't have a clue what that smells like. Whoever's decision it was to burn whatever the hell needs to be slapped.

Atriarch looked like they were big fans of the East End, and they sounded a lot like Trees. Hell, maybe they were Trees. That about covers it. They had a moment or two, but, enh. Didn't like Trees last year, either.

Saviours set up, and I was actually looking forward to them this time. The first time I didn't get much out of their set. The second time I liked about a third of what they played, and what I did like was pretty good (see previous song postings). This time... they all walked out in foam tomato soup can Halloween costumes and went straight down a path of goodness. (That was me resisting the obvious joke.) Their last song wasn't particularly strong for my tastes, but the rest of it was decent. There was a guy up front apparently called Jason who was loving the shit out of them, and whats-his-face singer was enjoying the attention.

I thought I'd woken up by now, but I had a complete brain-dead moment about here when Mr. Diesto, Mark, and his girlfriend said hi to me. I suppose because it was entirely unexpected. Nevertheless, I knew he'd been around here, at the blog, but apparently she has as well. Crazy shit.

I also had a fairly long conversation with some stoned individual who wanted to sell me drugs. He was pretty forward, and I'm having trouble remembering the last time that's happened. It was kind of like a vague reminder of previous Halloweens, like my 16th and 17th, or the one where I stupidly went out with a drunk girl and her lack of contribution made us miss the last bus so we had to walk a million years home. She's one of those people on my wishlist for a free punch in the face. In any case, I'll cover those other stories another day. Back to the 'view.

I've seen Witch Mountain once before, with Rob singing. They had a guest singer on the very last song, though I don't remember if she, then, was the same lady this time around. In any case, shortly after that show they announced the addition of Uta.

I hadn't seen her other band before in person, but I did see a video of her singing for Aranya and liked what I heard. I generally don't care for female vocals, but her voice is smooth and she doesn't ever do that irritating "talking singing" that women love to resort to because it makes them appear "tough". Or that dog whistle Sarah Mclaughlin/Evanescence crap. Her voice is pretty warm.

Anyway, the bass and bass drums during Witch Mountain were fucking great for one of their songs, possibly "A Power Greater"(?) and good otherwise. I know they played "Wing of the Lord" and there was another familiar one in their set, but I have brain damage. As for costuming, they were all dressed sort of like zombies.

Ludicra had a strong start, and I was doing okay with them for the first song or so. I'm pretty sure one of the songs' guitar was from Mastodon, though I can't place the song now. Elsewhere, I think it was the vocals that were getting to me and making me not like them, because their musicianship seemed okay despite being indefinably familiar. I was getting sick of the screaming.

Edit: Okay, the song was "Veils". Tell me that guitar doesn't sound like "Hearts Alive".

Yob didn't start playing til 12:10, leaving me 20 minutes to decide if I was going to stay through them and be irritated that I had to spend $30 to get home or save $30 but be irritated that I only saw them for 20 minutes. I chose the latter option. The two songs and the first ambient minutes of a new song, either "The Lie That Is Sin" or "Burning The Altar" that I caught sounded impeccable, and now I know I'll definitely try to see them in the future. Perhaps next time I'll make a proper, financially reserved trip out of it.

For some reason, I didn't know they were going to appear almost clean-cut. All kinds of unexpected, considering their sound. Or their crowd, har har.

As for the crowd this whole show, I got a sense of warmth or politeness for the most part, but they weren't the most active bunch. Ludicra had more followers than the previous bands up in the front, and the Yob crowd felt fairly defined and attentive as would be expected.

The sound, as always for the venue, was all-around good.

And I would like to apologize to every person who I accidentally raped with glitter. I had the idea to put hair glitter on, and what a whole lot of fail that was. Most of it had fallen off my head before I even left the house, but I know I left a trail with every step because I kept seeing it falling off my head. Thankfully, it washes off easily.

Finally, is it just me, or is Halloween tranny night?