Russian Circles, Further, Lo!@Hermann's Bar, Sydney(11/09/11)

Mon 12th Sep, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Lo! were the first band to play the night, not necessarily best suited to the line up but they definitely worked the room while playing accurately. The four piece band from Sydney were the heaviest band of the night playing with force with songs influenced somewhat by Mastodon and Converge. The drummer was outstanding with his dynamics and keeping a solid base for the timing of the set. The guitarist kept in time and had kept the songs flowing with the heavier metal riffs. The bass player kept a solid groove throughout the set while having a good stage presence. At one point the vocalist got into the crowd right up into the audiences face in attempt to get crowd participation happening. Overall Lo! played very well and had good stage presence, especially for the opening band of the night.

With interesting time signatures which kept the audience on their feet wondering where the set would go Further were the next band of the night playing their math rock influence tunes with incredible accuracy. They created heaps of difference sounds with only two guitar players, a bassist and a percussionist. This was done with the guitarists having an elaborate effects rig. There were a few false starts on some songs but they changed those into a somewhat comedic period. The bass player got into the groove and stayed there throughout the set using syncopation and other musical techniques close to perfectly it was a world class performance. The guitarists were perfectly synchronized playing harmonizing riffs and licks which locked into each other perfectly. Vocals were done by both the guitarists and the bassist which created an interesting vibe.

Next up were the people everyone was there to see, Russian Circles. The band consists of only three members hailing all the way from Chicago in the US. This set was a performance that only Russian Circles could execute the way they did.

With only three members some would think that their albums were close to impossible to imitate live with the numerous amount of sound layers and sound sources, those who assumed that would be in for a surprise. Both the guitarist and bassist had a plethora of effects pedals, many of these being delay and looping pedals, these would assist the band in creating an almost symphonic sound. The guitarist, Mike Sullivan, would start with one riff, use one of his many looping pedals to loop that riff and continue to pile up several layers of sound on top of this. The bass player, Brian Cook, would hold a groove down with the drummer which would also continue adding layers on top of each other bringing each an every song to an absolutely huge climax.

The amount of control and dynamics the band had in each song was incredible, everything happened as if they had rehearsed each song a thousand times. Each song was incredibly melodic even as it hit the build up. The drummer, Dave Turncrantz, was so accurate that he would go from barely touching the drums to the drums being the most powerful instrument in the band. He would change from calm jazz-type motifs going to huge metal rhythms. The bassist used a huge number of effects pedals to be able to achieve the perfect sound which coincided with the guitarists tone perfectly, he would go from a slow whole note grove to an insane 16th note melodic pattern, sometimes using octave pedals to be able to add another layer of guitar which would harmonize perfectly with what both himself and the guitarist was playing. With only three members in the band Russian Circles was able to create a bigger variety of sounds than any other band could.

This show was incredible, one that should not have been missed, masters of post-rock showed Sydney why they are one of the leading bands in post-rock today.