Wolf Eyes
Support: Nadja, Burden, Doom Tickler
Date: Friday June 3rd, 2016
Venue: the Garrison in Toronto, Ontario
T-shirt worn: Revenge 'Behold.Total.Rejection.'
I got to the venue about half an hour after doors and Doom Tickler were in the middle of their set. What I saw on stage was like something I've never seen before. Their music consisted of a guy playing tribal beats on a floor tom, distorted electronic effects and a girl doing death growls and pained screams into the microphone all while an instructional video of some old lady shampooing a possum in slow motion played on the video screen behind them. At first I thought it was utter torture but as their set wore on it actually had some cool moments. I'm not sure if it was the worst thing I've seen in my life or if it was brilliance. If not for the video I'd have not enjoyed it as much. But it was something I never thought I was going to see when I walked through the doors and something I won’t soon forget.
The next act Burden was mellower drone. I liked the parts where they were running piano strings through the strings of what looked to be a disassembled piano they had set up on stage. But the parts were they were just dropping marbles on the strings or putting the microphones too close to the strings to create feedback were a little grating. Their videos weren't as good either; just science stuff, animals and landscapes.
I've been wanted to see Nadja live for a while. I listened to them a lot in 2008 but stopped buying their albums because they were all starting to sound the same. And none of them ever reached the level of Touched. They release so damn many too that I'd probably have to take up a second mortgage on my house to keep up. Seriously, I think they’ve released thirty albums in ten years. And that's not even a joke. With so much material I figured they weren't going to play anything I recognized. In fact, I was just expecting an hour of improvisational wall-of-noise drone. But instead they opened with one of my favourite songs EVER: Flowers Made of Flesh. Of all the songs to play that's pretty much the best thing they could have opened with. It was a little too quite and there were no vocals but them playing that song was one of those moments when I had to remind myself to breath. Sadly, an error at the mixing board caused the sound to cut out completely and ended the song after fifteen minutes. Unless that's how they always end that song? The rest of their set was non-stop noise so I think it's the former. After that they played two or three songs I didn't recognize but all were incredible. I was wondering to myself for all these years how two people could make that noise and they did tonight. I only wish the drum machine was louder. This was really one of the best performances I've seen in my life and I don't know how any band could top it this year.
I was actually thinking of leaving after Nadja because I don't know how any band could follow them up. But I decided to give Wolf Eyes a shot. I have no idea who they are but I read up on them a little as they were setting up and was less than intrigued. I decided to give them three songs or fifteen minutes to hook me, whichever came first. So I left after fourteen minutes when I remembered that this show only cost twelve dollars. Not for me. It's not that I hate avant-guard music (although I do) it's more so that Nadja was so good that not much could follow them. Definitely not these guys. What I did hear was slow, smooth jazzy music with saxophone, flute, disjointed guitar and Lou Reed vocals. Yeah, fuck that.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Follow up:
when I sorted through my top concerts of 2016 Nadja ended up toping my list. I'm dying to see them again but they're based out of Germany now and seldom come back to Toronto. But when they do I'll be there.
I ended up downloading any free crap I could from Burden and Doom Tickler and none of it is to bad.
I haven't even thought of Wolf Eyes since this show other than when I was thinking of what some of the worst performances I saw in 2016 were. They ended up being the second most disappointing act I saw, after Cradle of Filth that March. I think they played Toronto again recently but no way I was going.
This is still one of the strangest experiences I've had in my life. I'll never forget walking into the venue and seeing Doom Tickler on stage doing their thing.
And the possum lady video turned out to be some nut-job named ME Pearl, a possum hypnotist: www.youtube.com/user/MEpearlA
Support: Nadja, Burden, Doom Tickler
Date: Friday June 3rd, 2016
Venue: the Garrison in Toronto, Ontario
T-shirt worn: Revenge 'Behold.Total.Rejection.'
I got to the venue about half an hour after doors and Doom Tickler were in the middle of their set. What I saw on stage was like something I've never seen before. Their music consisted of a guy playing tribal beats on a floor tom, distorted electronic effects and a girl doing death growls and pained screams into the microphone all while an instructional video of some old lady shampooing a possum in slow motion played on the video screen behind them. At first I thought it was utter torture but as their set wore on it actually had some cool moments. I'm not sure if it was the worst thing I've seen in my life or if it was brilliance. If not for the video I'd have not enjoyed it as much. But it was something I never thought I was going to see when I walked through the doors and something I won’t soon forget.
The next act Burden was mellower drone. I liked the parts where they were running piano strings through the strings of what looked to be a disassembled piano they had set up on stage. But the parts were they were just dropping marbles on the strings or putting the microphones too close to the strings to create feedback were a little grating. Their videos weren't as good either; just science stuff, animals and landscapes.
I've been wanted to see Nadja live for a while. I listened to them a lot in 2008 but stopped buying their albums because they were all starting to sound the same. And none of them ever reached the level of Touched. They release so damn many too that I'd probably have to take up a second mortgage on my house to keep up. Seriously, I think they’ve released thirty albums in ten years. And that's not even a joke. With so much material I figured they weren't going to play anything I recognized. In fact, I was just expecting an hour of improvisational wall-of-noise drone. But instead they opened with one of my favourite songs EVER: Flowers Made of Flesh. Of all the songs to play that's pretty much the best thing they could have opened with. It was a little too quite and there were no vocals but them playing that song was one of those moments when I had to remind myself to breath. Sadly, an error at the mixing board caused the sound to cut out completely and ended the song after fifteen minutes. Unless that's how they always end that song? The rest of their set was non-stop noise so I think it's the former. After that they played two or three songs I didn't recognize but all were incredible. I was wondering to myself for all these years how two people could make that noise and they did tonight. I only wish the drum machine was louder. This was really one of the best performances I've seen in my life and I don't know how any band could top it this year.
I was actually thinking of leaving after Nadja because I don't know how any band could follow them up. But I decided to give Wolf Eyes a shot. I have no idea who they are but I read up on them a little as they were setting up and was less than intrigued. I decided to give them three songs or fifteen minutes to hook me, whichever came first. So I left after fourteen minutes when I remembered that this show only cost twelve dollars. Not for me. It's not that I hate avant-guard music (although I do) it's more so that Nadja was so good that not much could follow them. Definitely not these guys. What I did hear was slow, smooth jazzy music with saxophone, flute, disjointed guitar and Lou Reed vocals. Yeah, fuck that.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Follow up:
when I sorted through my top concerts of 2016 Nadja ended up toping my list. I'm dying to see them again but they're based out of Germany now and seldom come back to Toronto. But when they do I'll be there.
I ended up downloading any free crap I could from Burden and Doom Tickler and none of it is to bad.
I haven't even thought of Wolf Eyes since this show other than when I was thinking of what some of the worst performances I saw in 2016 were. They ended up being the second most disappointing act I saw, after Cradle of Filth that March. I think they played Toronto again recently but no way I was going.
This is still one of the strangest experiences I've had in my life. I'll never forget walking into the venue and seeing Doom Tickler on stage doing their thing.
And the possum lady video turned out to be some nut-job named ME Pearl, a possum hypnotist: www.youtube.com/user/MEpearlA
Do you like old people porn? Because I just put enough to fill an old folks home in the wrestling section!