Jucifer is Livengood and playin' loud

There are different kinds of loud. There is 12-year-old-girl loud. There is hey-whippersnapper-turn-it-down loud. \nThen there is the Athens, Ga., rock duo Jucifer.\nThe band that played at Vertigo Nov. 5 peddled a brand of noise-rock that was airport-runway loud. Rattling the sternums of the three dozen or so who dared to attend, Jucifer's only problem was that all the good songs got washed away in the cacophony. But that was a big problem.\nComing on stage at 1 a.m. after a ridiculous 45-minute delay from the previous band -- how in the world could it take so long to set things up for a two-piece? -- the set began with singer/guitarist Amber Valentine in the dark, wearing a multi-hued dress and hunched over her guitar.\nShe wasn't playing power chords as much as she was unleashing squalls of noise. After a couple of minutes, on came drummer Ed Livengood. Wearing a flowing bandanna around his forehead, his attitude was martial. Each kick of his bass drum had the subtlety of a bowling ball to the abdomen.\nThe 45-minute set that followed was a more abstract run through their catalog. The songs had no time to breathe as Valentine and Livengood hid behind the lurching, downtuned noise. They didn't even stop momentarily to take a breath or rein in some applause. This was an endurance test for everybody.\nOn Jucifer's outstanding 2002 release I Name You Destroyer, the band showed off a solid sense of melody. Valentine, meanwhile, showed off an angelic vocal style that belied the nasty lyrics.\nLive, the din just gobbled up her voice. An exception was "Vulture Story," a dis of a self-absorbed boyfriend. Her voice rose up as if she were a one-woman church choir, calling the guy "a big fat hole."\nLivengood, meanwhile, furiously pounded away at a tom-heavy kit. As impressive as it was, it quickly bordered on monotony as the band felt more comfortable being loud than exploring the contours of their melodies.\nJucifer's light show and stage show may have surprised Vertigo veterans. Amps stacked a mile high, the band used strand lights and their own highlights in addition to the club's usual array. The band then hid behind the amps to create a temporary "backstage." It created a distance between performer and audience that typically isn't there. Then again, this wasn't the Jucifer paying customers were expecting.\nSullen, a St. Louis power trio with no bass, preceded with furiously paced pop tunes and reasonable charisma from co-leader Shanna Kiel. Racebannon opened the show with its own noise assault as lead singer Michael Anderson aped Frank Black while prowling the stage.