A Place to Bury Stangers turned the Larimer Lounge into A Place to Bury Eardrums on Wednesday. Photos by Lucia De Giovanni.
I am a firm believer that, to clear one’s head from the overwhelming sonic media din that constantly invades it, there is no substitute for a sustained dose of ribcage-and-cranium-rattling noise. While threatening to annihilate the eardrums, the experience of sheer volume seems to literally cleanse my headspace, leaving a slight humming that I like to think is the sound of synapses shaking off caked-on grey matter, soon to begin firing again, fresh, clean and uncluttered.
Wednesday night, the offered up a deafening combination for the hungry space rockers, shoegazers, and noise lovers that provided just that inoculation. The spectacularly noisy show featured Brooklyn’s , London-based , and Denver’s own , in a lineup of bands that had no trouble shaking the venue with volume with their performances in sonic sculpture.
Headliners A Place to Bury Strangers, a three-piece often referred to as “Brooklyn’s Loudest Band,” blasted the Lounge with a 50-minute set of feedback-drenched, screeching noise. If I learned anything from their set: itap one thing to build a sustainable wall of noise for a few minutes, but itap another to use that wall as a constant backdrop.
From the stage, which was almost completely hidden by the thick mist from the band’s fog machine, guitarist Oliver Ackermann, bassist Jono MOFO (Jonathan Smith), and drummer Jay Space played an abrasive, loud brand of rock that resurrected the ghosts of drone-rock bands like Loop and Jesus & Mary Chain, infused with Kevin Shields-style guitar from My Bloody Valentine’s “Isn’t Anything” era. Ackermann wielded his trademarked-for-noise-bands Fender Jaguar like a buzzsaw designed to cut through the songs, while MOFO and Space backed him up with a rhythm that was, at times, tight enough to be mistaken as electronic.
Ackermann also showed off his extensive knowledge of noise-sculpting electronics, using both feet nearly as frenetically as his hands in switching between effects, while rocking wah and volume pedals. While volume and looped drones were by far the overwhelming focus of their performance, APTBS also showed an adept talent for fitting in some truly creative melodies behind their wall of noise.
APTBS was preceded in the lineup by London-based Sian Alice Group, another band with sonic roots in the ’90s shoegazer/drone rock/space rock movement. Sian Alice Group features six members, and each handles at least two instruments including violin, harmonica, triangle, trumpet and others – many simultaneously – in the creation of their noise.
Led by vocalist Sian Alice Ahern, the band played a mixture of psychedelic, noisy space rock that harkened back, like APTBS, to influence from My Bloody Valentine and other bands from the thick-noised shoegazer movement. But they also exhibited a more overtly melodic influence from bands like Stereolab and Cocteau Twins in their instrumentalism.
While not quite as loud as APTBS, Sian Alice Group definitely presented their own wall of noise effectively. At one point, early in the set, the group settled into a protracted screeching feedback session that lasted nearly five minutes, and then segued directly into another song. Usually this type of noise freakout is saved for the end of a band’s set, and the fact that Sian Alice Group offered one up mid-set shows the band’s stones.
Denver’s The Swayback opened the nightap noise assault. This is certainly not a drawback, but they didn’t step up to the same bar as the other two bands in terms of volume – and I only mention that because volume seemed to be currency of choice for this night. The Swayback didn’t need to – They offer a more direct, less cacophonous brand of noise, making them a great, if slightly contrasting, fit for the lineup.
Billy Thieme is a Denver freelance writer and regular Reverb contributor.
is a Denver photographer and regular Reverb contributor.
MORE APTBS PHOTOS by Lucia De Giovanni.
MORE SIAN PHOTOS
MORE SWAYBACK PHOTOS
