Venue: Channel Zero
Gig date: 04/21/2012
Attendance: 150
Ticket price: €10.00
Post rock is clearly on the rise again. After the first wave in the eighties and the second at the start of the 2000s, we’re apparently headed for this genre’s peak in the second decade of the current millennium. Mostly thanks to bands that use post rock as the skeleton of their compositions and hang whatever genres they feel closest to on it. So on Saturday, April 21st, we got two bands from the post rock camp, plus one more band, let’s call them “X”. “X” because their musical expression had no business sitting next to the others, and neither did their stage presence.
These last masters, who actually played first, are called Smashed Face. Before that name they went by Interruption, Parricide and Detheria. They play brutal death metal, which they’ve lately blended with metalcore. An incredibly likeable band, and I laughed till I cried. Maybe they could follow in the footsteps of Jane Fonda, who put out aerobics workout videotapes. During the slower, rhythmic parts, the whole band starts doing squats. Sometimes in sync, sometimes not, but always, to put it mildly, unusual. The playing doesn’t suffer one bit during these exercises, so we can conclude these Czechs are in excellent shape. Considering they’ve put out three full-length albums, the latest in 2010, they’ve got plenty of material and played a good chunk of it for us. You don’t normally expect an almost hour-long set from the first opener. But since they weren’t boring and I had an immense amount of fun, their set flew by way too fast. Where I stood up front the sound was solid too, so, somewhat unexpectedly, we got a quality warm-up for the rest of the night.
Soon after, another Czech band took the stage. They go by the name Esazlesa and are a typical representative of the post rock I mentioned in the intro. They have an EP out and a single from it, but they’re lucky in that their tracks can be stretched out nicely without feeling pretentious. Their approach is similar to the Americans Rosetta, and in Slovenia you could put The Canyon Observer right next to them. They’ve mixed elements of sludge into their post rock, and with piercing vocals that makes for an atmosphere full of agony on one side and hope on the other. Their approach is classic for the genre. A calm start with a little melody, a melodic theme that repeats for quite a while, then the melody builds. Towards the end the quieter instruments get a lot louder and the cymbals take on a bigger role. What matters is that the melodic guitar theme always wins out. The vocals, too, you could say, support the guitar line in Esazlesa and are more about creating mood. The story itself is told by the guitar and the listener’s own imagination. A nice touch was the spoken word during the last or second-to-last song. I’d never understood Czech as a language that convinces before. But in that moment the vocalist’s delivery of the lyrics sent goosebumps crawling all over my limbs. Their stage presence is just right: very energetic when it’s called for and melancholic when they wade into calmer waters. They clearly enjoy what they do, and we can look forward to their next album.
Last up were the Australians Sleepmakeswaves. When they came on, the hall, already nicely full, filled up even more. You could feel the tension in the air, and people from all walks of life had plenty to see. The Australians’ approach is calmer than Esazlesa’s. The music doesn’t swing as much, it’s more linear. Still within the genre, of course. Compared to Lady Gaga, for example, they’re super dynamic and unpredictable.. They also lean harder on samples, which is an excellent addition. I came across a tidbit that last year they sold so many albums on Bandcamp in a single week that they hit the number one spot. They’re still one of Australia’s better-selling bands. They’ve released one album, titled …And So We Destroyed Everything, which I warmly recommend to the reader. The gig itself was the real deal, and a buddy of mine rightly asked whether it’s even possible to make bad post rock. Probably, but I’ve apparently been lucky enough not to run into such a band live yet. I haven’t come across this much emotion and this kind of full, melodic sound in any other genre. Proof of music’s universality is the very social diversity of the crowd I mentioned earlier. The performance itself was of course top-notch, and the sound was once again exactly what it should be. I could use a football comparison, where they say a good referee is the one you don’t notice during the match. Good sound is apparently the kind you don’t have to pay special attention to, because it’s always there at the right moment. Sleepmakeswaves served up an hour-long set, in a maybe slightly too intimate atmosphere, which suited me just fine at that moment. And since a pleasant Saturday night was waiting outside, I headed off, full of impressions, to my next adventure.
Photo Gallery
