Sunn O)))
Independent - Jul 4, 2007
review by tyler

What a way to spend the fourth of July! I arrived just before Weedeater started their set; a straight up power trio, with a hyperkinetic, over the top bass player/vocalist, bored-looking guitar player, and a reasonably enthusiastic drummer. They played what, to my untrained ear, sounded like seven slight variations on the same basic song, which was a sort of hard rock / metal thing with plenty of crunchy bass to make your arm hairs blow around.

Next up, Earth took a bit of a departure from some of their past works and stuck with (again, to my untrained ear) seven versions of a sort of bluesey thing, made interesting due to the heavy amplification and much more skilled playing in comparison to the previous act.

Though evidently Earth held themselves back in order to make way for the main show - sunn o))) was in kick-ass form. Two fog machines got cranked for about 10 minutes as techies scrambled around making final adjustments, the wall of amps looming in the background. By start time, the stage lights were almost entirely blocked out by the fog, and a dark blue ambient light was all that illuminated the stage.

One by one, robed, hooded figures entered the stage - the first took up an electric stand-up bass (bowed) and began to generate the trademark spleen-vibrating bass sludge that sunn o))) is famous for. Joined by a vocalist and a Moog synth, similarly clad in black robes, the song began to take shape.

The core guitar/bass duo entered last, ritually held up their instruments to the light, and proceeded to drop chord after power chord of doom and darkness into the whirling maelstrom of a song, its form and texture undulating, diving, turning in upon itself through unknown dark circuits of sustain and reverb. The song blossomed, more than mere sound, a full-body meditation of vibration and melancholy.

An hour or so later (who could say?) the song slowed, quieted, and finally faded into silence, and we were released into the night, the sidewalk, the air, my spleen, all so incredibly still.

posted Jul 15, 2007
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