Atlanta progressive rockers Zruda performed with Alabama surf instrumentalists Daikaijou, Cincinatti post-punks Ampline and Athen’s locals Sleeper Years on Saturday, March 12 at the Caledonia Lounge in Athens, Ga.
The Caledonia was loaded with more gear than I’d seen since the Devilneck Metal Fest in October. Amps lined the walls, including a half stack covered in red fur. Ampline were the first group to perform and went on at around 10:00 p.m. I had no previous knowledge of them and the description in the week’s issue of Flagpole magazine said only “Progressive rock and punk from Cincinnati.” I was pleasantly surprised to find that although that vague description was accurate, the band was also very entertaining. Can mountain-man beards be punk rock? After seeing guitarist Mike Montgomery and bassist Kevin Schmidt, I’d say the answer is yes. Most of their songs alternated between light and hard strumming while Montgomery added little harmonic phrases in between. A video was projected onto the kick drum of Rick McCarty as they played. While Mike’s distorted bits sounded very harsh and somewhat thin, his clean tone made up for it by being full and crisp. Overall, the band’s unique blend of punk and post-rock made for a very interesting listen.
Local newbies Sleeper Years followed soon after. They featured Matt Riley, of local progressive death metalists Shark Heart, on drums, Jake Duvall on bass and Paul Noble and Jeff Glenn on guitars. The band relied heavily on textured phrases and melodies formed between the two guitarists to create the moving structures of their songs. While there were a few moments when the group locked into a heavy riff-driven groove, most of the time they were lead by Matt’s fill-laden drumming. While in Shark Heart his technique is much more dominated by blast beat rhythms and quick tempo changes, in Sleeper Years he moved between the cascading rhythms and propelled each song as a lead instrument. Taking a central role, he was the driving force behind the outfit.
After a long and anticipatory gap between bands, Alabama surf-rocketeers Daikaijou entered the stage at around 12:00. Natives of Huntsville, Al., the groups name means literally “giant monster” in Japanese. All their songs are named after themes from Japanese monster movies like “Godzilla.” The members go under the pseudonymous stage names of Secret-man, Rock-man, Hands-man and Rumble-man. During their performance they wore matching skin-tight shirts with kanji letters down the middle and Japanese Kabuki masks that completely obscured their faces. Secret-man had wild, frizzeled hair that drew even more attention to the placid expression on his mask. Adding to their visual eccentricities was the self incurred genre moniker of “psycho-surf.” While certainly far from the traditional surf rock of the early Beach Boys, their modernized sound was still in the vein of surf instrumental pioneer Dick Dale.
The audience was anxiously gathered around the empty stage when the four masked-members mysteriously appeared and scurried to the platform. They immediately started riling up the crowd. Although they were without microphones, they had no problem using claps, gestures and dramatic posing to direct the audience’s attention. Rock-man and Secret-man frequently dismounted the stage to dance and interact with audience members. The atmosphere in the room was exciting, positive and totally fun. They clapped, bumped fists and even organized a stage-dive.
By the end of their set they had the audience eating from their hands. As a part of their last skit, they rounded the whole audience onto the stage. Then, Secret-man sat in a chair on the floor and played through some recognizable classic rock riffs. Each time he started playing, Rock-man silenced him with the wave of his hand. Eventually, the two settled on a riff and went into their last psycho-surfing song. At its conclusion they handed off their instruments to some of the audience members then wandered off as the crowd dissipated in a haze of amplifier feedback.
After some clean up and swapping of gear, Atlanta progressives Zruda mounted the stage. A veritable supergroup, Zruda featured Bryan Aiken and Sean Peiffer of local metal bastions Lazer/Wulf and Core Atoms and Drew Verstraete of Atlanta prog-veteran’s Gaylord. Their music was a strange mixture of furious polyrhythm, psychedelic breakdowns, funky grinds and danceable beats. Definitely inspired by Rush, each of the band’s songs was an extended player and collaged many different ideas into one. Their complex sound was constantly cemented by the dual guitar work of Brian and Core, the latter of whom plays an upside-down guitar with the strings strung the opposite of normal. Every member of the band was highly skilled and showed an adept ability to prod a variety of sounds form his instrument. Core used kitchen-ware and a small moog keyboard to create freaky, psychedelic noises as Sean laid down funky bass riffage and Drew slammed on the drums. Bryan showcased impressive soling and vocals despite suffering from an upset stomach. Several of the members shared vocals and at times created harmonies that flowed well over the battering music.
All the bands that night were great. Daikiajou in particular really blew me away with what was essentially performance art, but I was very impressed with the overall line-up and conformity of the evening. I left feeling reinvigorated and satisfied with a night’s hard rocking.
Related posts:
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.