Bottom of the Hill May 25, 2004 Review by Jake Thomas Ah, a night of quality rock action at the Bottom of the Hill. It had been quite some time since I last saw US Maple in all of their glorious weirdness, many moons ago at Kimos. Tonight, I would remedy that situation. First up in this trifecta of performers was Black Ghost. Although I know both of the kids that make up this band, I’m not in the business of heaping praise onto anything I don’t feel worthy… if the music didn’t catch my ear or inspire me in anyway I could have easily just left them out of the review. Instead, they brought the rock in a much larger way then you might ever expect a two-piece to – I don’t know if it was because of the band or the soundperson or a little of both, but the size of the sound I was hearing did not match the two small people that populated the stage. Very mathy, heavy, and mostly instrumental (and when there were vocals they were pretty much screamed), this group had improved by leaps and bounds over the time I last saw them, probably six months ago or so. If they keep on this track, can domination of the “noise rock” community be far behind? I wasn’t sure how or why The Heavenly States got on this bill – they didn’t really fit in with the noisy, chaotic sounds that the other two bands made, but rather had a classic pop-punk type of thing going ala Superchunk or the more upbeat Wrens stuff; which I liked pretty well actually, it just seemed to stand out amongst the rest of the line-up is all. I’d heard a few mp3s off of the band’s website (I think that’s where it was at least…) some time back, and most were just okay; the glaring exception being the song “My Friends”, which is one of the best things I heard all of last year (of which there is a link to in the “listen” section of this website). There was a great energy to their live performance, and it seemed like most of the folks there were into what they were doing onstage. Finally, after a bit of a delay, US Maple took the stage. Slowly. It started out with just the guitarist out there playing by himself, and slowly the rest of the members joined him. I’ve head a lot of different descriptions of the music these guys produce, and the truth is there is no single way to describe it; to me, they sound like the musical embodiment of what going crazy would be like. I don’t really know how to explain it; it’s just one of those things you have to see. Therefore it is fitting that the singer, Al Johnson, looks like a man who is verifiably insane. And I don’t mean in that “oh look at the hyper singer jumping around, he’s so crazy” way; rather, he has that look in his eyes that screams dementia. He stalked around on the stage like a caged tiger, ready to strike but never quite going for it; and those actions are fairly analogous to the band’s music – lots of build up and tension, without any resolve. It’s all pretty fantastic really, and some of the most original stuff I’ve ever heard. While these guys certainly aren’t for everyone, and even though I’m not even sure I “get” it, I really like US Maple and hope they come back around sooner rather than later. ©2004 playinginfog.com |