It's something of a miracle the walls at Russian Recording are still standing after the four-pronged bombing raid of unfathomable heaviness that struck Friday night. That's hyperbole, but barely. By the time doom metal lifer Joe Preston aka Thrones launched into the second song of his expansive, genre-bending set, a shelf of snare drums in the corner of the venue was shaking so much that the drums had to be moved outside. It was a moment that gave visual weight to what had been happening in audio for hours at that point. Russian Recording went out of its way to book four forward-thinking, wildly different, and equally heavy acts for one great show.
Local support on the show came from Charnel House, a drone duo built on live drums, analog tape machine guitars, and skying female vocals ripped straight from a demonic ritual, and Racebannon, the consistently fantastic noise punk quartet. Charnel House's live presence still needs a lot of work; there wasn't much improvement from their mostly awkward set opening for Coffinworm at The Bishop last December. The translation of the band's music to a live environment was mostly there, but the comfort of being on a stage clearly wasn't. Racebannon, on the other hand, destroyed. It was their first show with a new bass player and drummer whose names I sadly didn't catch, and frontman Michael Anderson jokingly called them out for being n00bs, but they were already in perfect rhythm with their new band. Racebannon killed it as much as they did a few weeks ago at ex-drummer Brad Williams and ex-bassist Chris Saligoe's last-ever show with the band opening for Melt-Banana. Props, then, to Anderson and guitarist James Bauman for being so steady a driving force behind one of Bloomington's best local acts today.
After Racebannon, the first of the two touring acts set up and proceeded to rip off every face in the room for nearly an hour. Portland natives Danava play what could be deemed "hipster retro rock" by the too readily dismissive, but what is perhaps the best lo-fi tribute to Zeppelin, Cream, Sabbath, and Lizzy going today. With a set built heavily on cuts from the fantastic new Hemisphere of Shadows LP, the quartet effortlessly tossed off the hardest-rocking set of the night. Less crushingly heavy than the three acts they shared the bill with, but easily the one that resulted in the most involuntary smiles from the crowd. Danava is fun. Listen to Danava.
Last up was Joe Preston's one-man annihilation producer, Thrones. Armed with an array of pedals, a vocoder, a five-string bass, and twenty years of road experience, Preston literally shook the walls of Russian Recording and gave a remorselessly heavy yet surprisingly melodically complex set. He's also done time with Sunn O))), Melvins, and High on Fire over the years, and the droning, sludgy and shredding tendencies of all of those acts have crept into his live Thrones set. He only played three songs (though the middle one easily stretched toward the half-hour mark) and only one with vocals, but there was little doubt that the master had taken his proper place on the bill.
Before the show, I had eavesdropped on a high school kid talking Joe Preston's ear off about life on the road and sitting by Danava frontman Gregory Meleney and chatting him up about music. The musicians were appreciative and engaged, indulging this bright-eyed youth in his rock star fantasies. It reminded me of when I was his age, so excited to be able to attend concerts and talk to the people whose music made my life so much better. Friday's Thrones show was a collision of hardened rock veterans like Joe Preston and optimistic young folks like this kid. The dichotomy isn't as stark as it seems. Everyone in attendance was a part of a genuine rock n' roll experience that night, embracing every moment and already looking forward to their next riff-based epiphany. It was beautiful.
Post by Brad Sanders; Photography by Steph Aaronson
