Just saw these guys, great show! Seems like a band many of you might enjoy, there are elements of metal but there’s also a kraut-like rhythm section that keeps everything tight. My ears are ringing from the bliss! The first song they played was a 45 minute version of “Sonic Prayer”. Sweet! OK, time to sleep now.
cool jam…stoner rock feel to it.
If you haven’t heard this album yet and liked what you heard, than cranking this mother up is the next best thing to experiencing it live.
Fortunate to count Earthless as local exports and have seen them three times so far even though they play really often so that number is pretty low if you want to play numbers. Was happy to see them get more exposure on the west coast from the tour they did with Baroness.
Their talent is taking seemingly conventional guitar jams and making something completely entertaining with long formats. I love what they do but am also curious if they could write songs with vocals.
They had two tracks w/ vocals last night, both were rather short and the vocals weren’t mixed well so I cannot really judge. Definitely the 45 minute monster jam was the high point.
What makes seeing them great is how tightly they actually play. A forty five minute jam would assuredly be a lot of freeform playing, right? I’ve read what they do during those performances is very structured and a lot of what sounds improvisational really isn’t. That sounds disappointing but I think it’s a testament to their abilities to play something so grand without it sounding on the verge of collapse all the time.
I got the feeling that it was very structured, with a minimum of improv. I think that’s one reason I like them so much, they are really tight and the drums and bass spend much of the time locked into a motorik Neu-like groove. I don’t like bands that get too proggy and keeping that backbone keeps the prog element in check. That said there are a few “fx” based breakdowns that can in no way sound the same twice.
I had a friend of mine who worked in somewhat similar music at one time and he’d play a 30 minute guitar track w/loops that sounded fully improv-ed but was actually completely composed. It’s a testament to the attention span and playing skill to be able to do that.