Have you ever heard the term “loud as fuck”? I’m sure you have but you may never have wondered how loud fuck truly is. Well, it has been defined and quantified. I have never worn earplugs at concerts before but during the soundcheck by The Ree-Yees, I quickly realized that there is a first time for everything. These guys were OK but really just rip-offs of the headliner. I generally like the opening act to be at least somewhat different from the headliner just so that there is no monotony.
This was the Empty Bottle’s second installment of their free concert series “Music.Friendly.Dancing”. And the reason the crowd was all packed into this awesome little shoebox venue was to be struck and bludgeoned by the mighty Lightning Bolt. For those who haven’t witnessed the sheer blitzkrieg of noise that emanates from just these two men, you can’t be prepared for it. Brian Chippendale is the hardest working stage performer in rock as he machine gun drums through these tracks at blinding speed with so much power, all the while having to vocalize what can at least loosely be described as lyrics. And what Brian Gibson does with a bass is true pioneering, almost Eddie Van Halen-like. He is not content, nor does it make much sense for him in this context, to simply lay the foundation of each “song”.
Speaking of songs, the most ardent Lightning Bolt would have had difficulty weeding through this setlist amidst the mayhem. Having stayed away from the core of the madness, I could only truly pick out the opening ( “2 Morro Morro Land”, mag from 2005’s magnum opus Hypermagic Mountain) and closing (the mammoth “Colossus”, from their last album Earthly Delights) numbers. There was also at least one excellent as-yet unreleased entry. The rest of the set is probably still rattling around in my battered brain and may have leaked out onto my pillow last night, or was expelled as soon as I removed my earplugs. I took note after getting to my car (which was in a great parking spot) that even though I was deaf, the fact that I witnessed this bedlam for free meant this night was all about winning. Duh!
