Two weekends ago marked a special time for the Lowell music scene with the release of the new Nice Bass/Audio Park collaboration: Lowell & Behold vol.2. Friday night, we broke out the amps and cranked the subwoofers, 7 bands all playing loud and proud.
Starting the night off was ONSLO, a trio of epic proportions, full of raw energy and vocal harmonies. For your own sake, please check them out. You will not be let down.
Second up were THE SINBUSTERS, the band in which I lose most of my hearing, errr, play drums. As usual, we were not the happiest with our performance, but based on the crowd reaction and the recording (yes, those will be available SOON), I’d say we were pretty tight. Pat was sportin’ some tig ol’ biddies.
Up next, the trio featuring local veterans Gabe Cruser and Brandon Downs, with ex-Trip Fisk guitarist Whit Love, rocked their extended poly-rhythmic electro-funk jams. Hearing the instrumental complexity of THREE DUB MICE, sporting synthesizers, foot-triggered loops, and vocal harmonies, it is hard to believe they are only a trio. Watch out for this band, and try to get your hands on a limited copy of one of their releases, Version 1, Version 2, or …Live From The Fallout Shelter. Their instrumental track on the compilation features Alex Toth of Rubblebucket Orchestra.
Longtime Lowell band MANIFEST took the stage next, leading the crowd into energetic singalongs and mosh-ful excitement. The security at Gemstones didn’t like that too much. The front man of the heavy metal quintet, Ronnie C, has more than enough stage presence to go around. They have an EP in the final stages, and perform regularly at Mickey’s Irish Pub on Central St.
From here, there was no moment of cooling down, as the last three bands brought more energy to the stage than I could even try to describe. THE BIG SWAY‘s instrumental “distortion funk” had people moving feet and bobbing heads. I had the amazing pleasure of getting onstage with my saxophone to wail with these guys on their last track, “The Cheese,” a downright dirty jam full of tri-tone riffs and chromatic squeaks and squonks. They have an EP in the beginning stages, set to be recorded and released in the spring of 2010.
BENEATH THE SHEETS never ceases to entertain, coming onstage around 11:30 with their tighter-than-a-baby’s-asshole set. I couldn’t tell if singer Evan Gillis was joking when he said he was feeling a bit under the weather, because from the sound of it, he was on top of his game. They just self-released their debut album Go Easy, It’s My First… for Dirty White Sneaker Productions, so PEEP THAT!
Last to rock the joint, Hetfield & Hetfield smashed their way through 10-12 songs (sometimes it’s hard to tell where the opuses begin and end), giving everyone left in the club no choice but to thrash with them. As an instrumental metal trio with a garage full of songs and new ones being crafted all the time, this band has already taken off in the growing Lowell music scene. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for their unique epic thrash doom style.
And if you are in a 20 mile radius of any of these previously mentioned bands, you will probably feel their energetic vibrations flowing out to space.
MAD PROPS TO: Ali Lipman for taking the beautiful live pictures and Brian Bahia for running sound that night.
Check out other bands on the compilation who (sadly) did not play the release parties:
LADDERLEGS, THE KOMINAS, LOS BUNGALITOS, OH MY THE MOON, GOOSEPIMP ORCHESTRA, THE BAY STATE, RALPH EATS DYNAMITE, and THE WHALEWATCHERS.
