I knew it was going to be loud before I set foot inside Bottom Of The Hill last night, and got an inkling that it might be really loud when I heard gearheads marveling over Young Widows’ and Russian Circles’ assorted Sunn and Emperor products. What resulted, however, was something skull-crushingly loud beyond my expectations. I’m still in a state of shell shock and it’s been a full day. My stomach is still not quite right, possibly because something in my inner ear was damaged, as each band operated at the same basic volume level. The quality of the music wasn’t as uniform.
I arrived ready to be won over by Helms Alee. Won over might even be a term too skewed toward the negative; I liked the idea of liking them. They’re on Hydra Head Records. Ben Verellen looks like a really nice grizzly bear or something. While I was off thinking about what it would have been like to have a grizzly bear for a best friend during childhood, I kept getting drawn back into reality by their heavy-handed use of effects. Verellen’s vocals were especially problematic for me since he was clearly screaming his lungs out but sounded about a million miles away. It was kind of like watching someone scream underwater, or if you took footage of a lion roaring and paired it with a kitten’s meow. I couldn’t get past it.
I can only say that the space-y stoner rock qualities got away from Helms Alee. It’s a shame because the parts that didn’t rely on using pedals and effects sounded interesting, and I liked how the vocal duties were split up amongst the three members. Plus, you know, I would have liked to see how that whole grizzly bear tea party thing ended. (Not that I had tea parties as a kid.)
Russian Circles suffered from almost the opposite problem. It was incredibly easy to stand there and rock my head to but I couldn’t effectively lose myself in it. I kept coming back into my head and thinking, “Wow, are we still here?” The songs churned adequately but never broke out.
If I were to run with my current bear pre-occupation I’d say that Young Widows were “just right.” They took the stage almost entirely backlit by the bright floods built into their equipment -- it definitely stole some of the power from Russian Circles, who came out doing the same thing. Timing notwithstanding, it fit better with Young Widows anyway. The lighting made for a more dis-associative experience and, whether intentionally or not, the light that did fall on their faces directed attention to guitarist Evan Patterson. Everything cooperated to expand my sense of space and time. Where there was grinding and droning it never felt like it was holding anything back; I knew it was leading to something and, instead of hanging there waiting for a climax, I could just enjoy where we were for that moment.
