Montag, 20. Apr 2009, 2:11

Last December in Boris' show when they gave out fliers for this concert the line-up sounded sort of too good to be true. Well, it was too good to be true, because it was not that kind of great success I was expecting.

My expectations in the order of greatness:

1. Boris
2. Sunn O)))
3. Envy
4. Isis
5. Growing

The reality:

1. Isis
2. Envy
3. Sunn O)))
4. Boris
5. Growing

Growing played about a year ago in Helsinki with Boris. Then I did not have much expectations for their show, but it turned out to be quite sweet. Not so sweet, that I would buy a record, but sweet enough to put your head nodding and made you to concentrate 100% to their show. This time they had a new band member with drum machine and effects, and also doing some vocals. For me this ruined it all. Earlier two guitars made their sound very interesting, because they did not have any "hard" beats, and the guitars were the flesh around the bones of their music. Now it sounded like a collection of random Josh Wink bleeps and the guitars were somewhere in the background which made it dull.

Envy delivered. I saw them some while ago in Earthdom playing a nearly two hour one man show. Which was great. But, Liquidroom's stage, lights, and sound really did justice for their music. The most of the screamo apeness makes me, well, scream, but I do like Envy very much. Maybe they are recycling some post-rock cliches, but their post-hardcore vibe and drive puts their music on the good list in my books. This gig provided good set of complex beats, beautiful melodies, heavy riffage, and a needed amount of good rock show.

Boris just failed. The both of the two shows I have seen before were just exceptionally great. Especially the last December's show in UNIT. Now it felt a little lazy and not right from the beginning. There was too much echo, which made the sound very plugged. Even Rainbow failed, because there was too much echo in Wata's vocals. The echo just destroyed all the nice aspects of her voice.

This was followed by unfortunate equipment breakdown. Wata's guitar went mute and they spent over ten minutes fixing the issue. The band was performing on the background but it sounded just boring without Wata. This gives a good example how complicated it might be to fix issues during the show if you have tons of gear. Especially if you don't have a technician who knows all the aspects of your equipment. At the end of this failure Atsuo stood on his drumkit as always, but he just jumped on the stage and went backstage skipping his traditional jump into the audience.

This time Sunn O))) was just Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson. Except after the first attack Atsuo came onto the stage dressed in a robe. He dived into the audience, got back to the stage, and sat behind of drums. There was quite a nice amount of sound pressure, but it wasn't anything spectacular. They probably did not rehearse, because the timing with the guitars and drums was off. In 2005 I saw Sunn O))) in Helsinki, and it was jaw dropping and ear popping 1,5 hour drone murder-rape ritual. This ~30 minute show was lacking in every area compared to 2005's show. Quite nice, but nothing to remember. Perhaps Boris' disappointment made it even harder to set into Sunn O))) mode.

Isis was the same as they are on their records. Five guys played professionally with rock instruments some lengthy heavy songs that have occasional screamed and clean vocals. And they did that well. The songs from Wavering Radiant sounded good, too, so maybe they are heading to the better direction after mediocre In the Absence of Truth album. They even spoiled us with encore, so maybe they considered Tokyo's audience worth of their self declared art (yes, I read some interview a few years ago and it has bothered me ever since).

Aftermath: Leave Them All Behind was definitely not worth of 6000円 ticket. I'd say we got a show for 4000-5000円. Well, it sounded too good in the beginning. And still, this was enjoyable evening, but it could have been so much better.