Walken, Aerial Ruin, Saturn's Return - thee parkside

hey guys, feel like a show review?  too bad, that's what you're getting.  i know what you're thinking, "...(sigh)...a review of another Walken show. let me guess, sandeep loved it.  surprise surprise, what an asshole."  well put.  i guess my burden is to make this a scintillating piece of reading then.  'ear me now (that was an ali g impression):

"i love it...this is like,'metal heads get old and mellow out' night at the bar..." i overheard some random chick saying to her dudeman as they were standing by me during Aerial Ruin's set.  she kinda wasn't kidding.  seriously, if you are into metal, live in sf, and have a significant other who's into lighter shit and you were at this show, you probably got laid like crazy saturday night/sunday morning, your patner thankful for some chill, acoustic-y indie-ish rock and you satisfied by some badass metal.  

as i was pulling up and finding a spot to lock up my bike outside thee parkside i heard music already seeping out the doors.  in my experience, Walken has always had badass bands with the on the bill, so i hurried through my lock up and headed in as quickly as i could.  Saturn's Return was up and laying down some mellowed out...indie (hard) rock?  definite essences of metal showed through with sweep picked guitar parts and the occasional double bass, laying down a sound that sound more akin to Built to Spill rocking out with Alice in Chains than annoying dumb homogenous arcade fire style stuff.  all in all, from the three songs i heard, they were pretty badass, but cill...a little perplexing for the first band at a show headlined by my favorite local metal band.


second onstage was Aerial Ruin.  i first heard about this band when i went to see Cuttthroats 9 at el rio a while back.  i was chatting with Will Carroll post show and asked him if there was any possibility of an Old Grandad doing a show.  he replied that a show would probably happen eventually, but at the moment he was busy with many other bands (at the time Death Angel being the most time consuming!!), and fellow Old Grandad member Erik Moggridge had moved to Portland and was touring with a solo acoustic project.  i wish i could say i looked it up the next day, but in all honesty, let's fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when i google the acts opening for Walken.  when i looked into Aerial Ruin, i found what looked like a rather stereotypical long haired, battle vest wearing, bearded, sludge and/or death and/or thrash and/or power metal looking dude sitting behind an acoustic guitar playing some pretty haunting technical riffs alongside almost folksy vocals.  needless to say, i was curious about what it would be like live...

Erik Moggdrige...aka Aerial Ruin

...and live, it was pretty badass...seriously.  it was an interesting juxtaposition, a dude wearing a Lesbian t shirt (the same Lesbian t shirt i have!!!) growling out song titles only to cut into riffs and vocals reminiscent of At the Gates' acoustic work and Neutral Milk Hotel simultaneously.  Aerial Ruin went electric for the last few songs featuring hypnotic guitar doubling between Moggridge and Eric Peterson (of Saturn Returns that night, but also Night After Night and Lost Goat).  All in all, Aerial Ruin's set was fun and despite expecting the usual distorted guitars that usually accompany Walken's opening acts, i really fucking enjoyed Aerial Ruin's show.  the album is well worth picking up, offering an interesting view one metal head's perspective of acoustic rock.  after listening to the album it was easy to see that i probably would have been much more into Aerial Ruin's set were i more in the mood for something a little more laid back...but saturday night i was ready to rock the fuck out to some Walken!

as Walken prepared to start heir set and close out the show, frontman Shane Bergman (also of Hazzard's Cure) joked that the audience could take out their earplugs.  thankfully, i never wear earplugs, and why would i?  put a fucking barrier between myself and the soul crushing awesomeness that is Walken live??!!  fuck no!  if you've ever read a blog post where i've mentioned this band, you know i can't be impartial on this front.  these guys seem to play music that exactly fits my definition of 'kickass tunes'.  now i don't mean to sound totally arrogant, but i like to think i have pretty fucking good taste in music (if i was being honest i'd say i have the best fucking taste in music on the planet, i just haven't discovered all the bands that fit into it yet, but in an attempt to show at least one measly iota of humility, i'll say i have 'pretty fucking good taste' in music), that being the case, it would follow that bands i think are totally fucking amazing are not only extremely talented, but are also folks whom you should think are totally fucking awesome...TOTALLY FUCKING MINDBEDINGLY AWESOME.  i for one, think Walken is one of the most amazing bands i've come across in the last five years, so following the simple syllogism i just set up...well, you get the point, you love Walken too, now read on.

Sean, Shane, Zack (in the back!), and Max..WALKEN!!!  \m/

i've constantly had the pleasure of being able to ask the members of Walken when their next album is coming out. totally awesome for me, though possibly a pain in the ass tot he membership of Walken, but i can't help it.  ever since my first Walken show, i've been hearing songs announced as "new songs" sometimes without lyrics or titles...and they've all absolutely destroyed...just totally fucking DESTROYED!  at first i would constantly come home from shows with 'Thunder Paws' stuck in my head for days, salivating rabidly over the prospect of having a copy (thankfully we got that album back in november of '09!). it's addictive fucking music folks, and staurday's show dished up even more...some new tracks that are starting to feel a little familiar (in the most headbangingly awesome way possible) and others that were brand fucking new.  the new material continues along the path the band has already set, with crunchy, groovy riffs heavily percussive yet melodic bass, gut shattering drums, and unrelenting growled vocals...though many of the new tracks seemed to be instrumentals...maybe lyrics are in the works...?  the new songs are fucking brilliant and show the band reaching new heights in their collective musical growth...but i would kill to hear them play 'Bitch Wizard' live again (it's been a while!)!

Sean, Shane and Zack, killin' it on stage as Walken destroyed...

Zack n' Max, takin' no prisoners with Walken saturday night

members of Walken are of course involved in various other projects, Zack and Max also forming two thirds of Grayceon and Shane joining various other badass local doomsters in Hazzard's Cure, both of which are awesome bands that i look forward to seeing as often as possible, but Walken, Walken inspires something distinct.  badass would be a good word for, but unfortunately badass in now way expresses the immensity of pure fucking awesome that Walken represents.  they're playing again in september if not before, i'll post details as soon as i hear 'em, BE THERE. (i'll twitter at ya' about it...follow me, i'm sandeeppbhuta)

Sean and Shane, shreddin' chords and vocal chords...Walkenroll!

...and Walken delivers one badass encore.

so yeah, an interesting mix this saturday night, in the end, undoubtedly a badass show....phew, and we're done!  perfect timing!  better grab my bike and get on my way to bottom of the hill for the Orange Goblin/Gates of Slumber/ Naam show...keep it gloomy y'all.

um...hey!

holy shit...it's been a while! i know, i know. you're sitting there, in front of a computer, curing my lazy ass for denying you pertinent information on the music you should be acquiring as you chuck out all that bullshit you thought you liked. sorry, i'm back, so continue destroying all non-metal music, and keep it tuned here...insanehinduramblings is getting re-envisioned.

so the flow of things is gonna change a little. as opposed to simply offering up reviews of badass albums and shows, i'm gonna give y'all some insights through a chronicle of one slightly off kilter eccentric metal head growing up, doing the adult thang and headbanging til i snap my neck doing so. so what does that mean for the blog you ask? basically, you'll get regular musings, show reviews, album reviews, show suggestions (all probably shorter than the reviews posted previously), and insight into the way metal has enriched my life and will yours as well...as soon as you quit being such a pussy. posts will be full of listening recommendations and disparaging comments about most other forms of music and folks who's political ignorance is so great that they require instant death and a Cannibal Corpse style postmortem skull fuck. it'll be awesome and everything you need...aside from the many badass downloads available at Illogical Contraption (...wait, you don't read Illogical Contraption?! why the fuck are you wasting your time on this pitiful joke of a blog?! do not pass go, just head over to Illogical Contraption and forfeit your life).

alright, well let's start my blog's zombified return to unlife with a quick recap of 2011. 2011 has been pretty shit kickingly awesome...nuff said. they year began with a new years party at guerrero gallery where some douchy whiny hipster band got totally blown away and musically mauled by Grayceon who brought some real talent to the party. since then, waves of awesome musical brutality have been ebbing and flowing like no other. Red Fang has shattered skulls with two SF appearances in less than a month, Walken has resumed regular (almost monthly!!) black masses (aka shows) in SF, Lesbian came through on tour to brutalize us with tunes from a new album, YOB decimated locals at the great american music hall in support of Neurosis, Unsane has laid waste to both thee parkside and el rio, Hightower pressed 'Tower to the People' on vinyl, germany's Nocturnal raised Satan in the united states for the first time ever at submission art gallery in the mission, Black Cobra (featured in shitty cell phone pictures below) continues to kick the shit outta every local audience they play for, and the 45 minute set of all new material Saviours played on their sf stop of the 'Eternally High' tour showed the band reaching soul shreddingly awesome new musical heights.

Jason of Black Cobra

Rafael of Black Cobra

a couple of new promoters of darkness to keep an ear out for would be the bone marrow guzzling brilliance of Hazzard's Cure (featuring Shane from Walken, Chris from Floating Goat, and a couple other folks that i'm pretty sure used to play for Orb of Confusion [who fucking owned] before they broke up), Pins of Light (featuring Jake from Hightower), Serpent Crown (female fronted awesomeness with Will Carrol [of a buzillion bay area metal bands, but most prominently Death Angel] pounding beats on his signature 'Hail Satan' drum kit), Pegataur (another loud ass, gut ripping bay area heavy metal two piece), Huntress (a collection of california badasses who's unrelenting, thrashy, sexy female fronted power metal stylings leave one seething for more), Hot Fog (who's tasty NWOBHM style goodness helps keep smiles on metalhead's faces), and Night After Night (i'm pretty sure they have the same drummer as Hot Fog, but they rarely play shows and are struggling to get an album recorded and released, so all i know of them is from rumors at shows, blog chatter, and random downloads from Illogical Contraption...but seriously, download this fucking Night After Night album...it owns!!).

wonderin' where to find me rockin' out  next?  shit, after reading this post i would be too.  well you're super fucking lucky, 'cuz next up for sandeep is Walken (dude, these guys are the shit...see previous posts if you have questions) next saturday the 4th at thee parkside.  come check out some awesome local shred slayed by some brutally talented folks      

so there you have it folks. insanehinduramblings is back with plans to be bloodier than ever. keep it gloomy y'all.

Grayceon/Lesbian/Walken - 11/5

so, how was your friday night? undoubtedly pretty fuckin' lame compared to sandeep's. three of the most badass bands i've encountered in the last 10 years, one show, $8 cover, and it was diwali (and birthdays of members of two of the bands!). i had been stoked about this show for a while, with Grayceon (SF), Lesbain (Seattle), and Walken (SF) playing on one night it was almost an ideal lineup for me.

before coming to the bay, i spent a few years kicking around seattle. upon encountering Lesbian, i made it a point to attend as many of their shows as possible and buy up every recording of theirs that i could. Lesbian forges the way into a delicate metal sub genre of their own. dipping into sludgy doom coupled with intensely psychedelic jams interwoven between math rock-esque break downs, they are more than a little hard to cram into a box.

Grayceon, also being a very uniquely artistic band, has never failed to amaze audiences at every show i've seen them play. i distinctly recall some random dude approaching Grayceon guitarist Max Doyle (also of Walken) after the band had just tore it up on the roof of idle hands tattoo parlor during the lower haight art walk, shaking his hand and saying "i never knew i could like a metal band before today...". there are many qualities that about Grayceon that one doesn't often encounter in metal bands. Jackie Perez Gratz (also of Giant Squid and Amber Asylum) fronts the band as vocalist and electric cello shred mistress. add guitarist Max Doyle's crushingly heavy handed finger picking and drummer Zack Farwell (also of Walken)'s thundering rhythms into the mix and all you're doing is bringing together keen minds for music theory and ridiculous amounts of obvious musical prowess. it's impossible to describe the bands sound without frighteningly redundant use of the word 'epic', so i'm just going to recommend you head to their website (http://www.grayceon.com/) and their myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/grayceon), listen to a couple tunes, and have your credit card ready, you'll be wanting to buy the albums as soon as you're finally able to tear yourself from listening to the songs over and over online...if of course you don't own them already.

Walken...well i'll lay my bias out on the table, i fucking LOVE this band. i don't know what it is, but from the firs time i saw them play, i was fucking hooked. taking some of the greatest elements of doom, math rock, and a healthy dollop of thrash Walken churns out tunes that are just so satisfying to my ears and soul. somehow it's like their music better describes my emotions than words can...it would be fucking sweet if i could walk into work and simply say 'i'm feeling very Thunder Paws today' as opposed to explaining that i feel very intense and mind bendingly groovy with high chances of repeatedly throwing some metal horns...(seriously, look up the song! it makes sense!!)...but i digress. these guys fucking rock. featuring the guitar and drum combination of Max Doyle and Zack Farwell you've already come to love with Grayceon, Walken also hosts Sean Kohler on guitar and backing vocals, with Shane Bergman (also of Hazzard's Cure) rounding the grinding quartet off on bass and lead vocals. together, the band belts out a sound worthy of the badassittude and groovyness of their namesake.

walking in to the hemlock on friday night i could already hear the chug of the cello. it was 10:05 and Grayceon was already on stage! i rushed to the bar, grabbed a beer, paid my cover to gain entrance to the tiny back room with the stage and dashed in, only to be met by a wall of show goers nodding to the hypnotic stylings Grayceon shreds their audiences with. their churning, heavy tunes cutting back and forth between sharp, driving speed sections and grinding, epic, down tempo dirges all within one 5 to 12 minute opus. i have yet to see this band put on a bad show, not even an okay so, Grayceon throws down. add in the fact that it was Zack's birthday, and all the good vibes that brought, and you have one killer fucking set with an audience packed so tightly there isn't even room for a gangly indian dude to slither his way to the front.

next up on stage was Lesbian...i love those guys! i was sure to stake out a spot up front for this, it was maybe april when i saw them last, but being in SF means having way fewer opportunities to see them play, so i jumpon any chance i get! i remember reading once that they first chose to call themselves 'Lesbianwitch' because they were searching for a band name that would be as offensive to christians as 'Black Sabbath' or 'Pentagram', then after a bit, it became Lesbian (i have no idea why, but who the fuck cares?! they tear it up!). Lesbian's set began with frontman Dorando Hodous letting the audience know they only had time for two songs. i smiled, recalling a Lesbian show at chop suey in Seattle more than a few years ago with Book of Black Earth and Melt Banana where their show started the exact same way, it was a good indication that epic slaughter was soon to follow. Lesbian warmed the audience up slowly, weaving intricate, oddly syncopated patterns with more reverb than distortion, creating a pleasant false sense of security before tearing into some intensely sludgy yet mind bogglingly technical riffs, which managed to sound simultaneously hap hazard and delicately crafted. luckily with Lesbian, two songs is a good 30 minutes, and Lesbian utilized that time to batter the audience with two amazing tracks off of their recently released (a month ago maybe) album, Stratospheria Cubensis (which is awesome by the way...more details on that in a later post [oh, and just a side note, but Lesbian is going to be playing in oakland this thursday the 11th at Sugar Mountain Records on San Pablo]).
closing out the show was Walken. since y'all already know how i feel about their music, prepare for more of the same. the show was fucking awesome, AWESOME. Grayceon and Lesbian alone made it an amazing night, but with Walken headlining...i'm struggling to some up with a simile to adequately express how FUCKING AWESOME this show was. let's jsut say, i would have paid 8 bucks to hear Walken play just one song live.

i got a bit of a kick out of the fact that this show was happening almost a year to the day after the CD release show for Walken's most recent full length album (Nov. 6th, 2009 at annie's social club...oh annie's...) . this year, it was celebrating Zack and Sean's birthdays that was adding extra emphasis to the fact that it was bound to be a badass fucking set. i was super excited to see Walken play. i had missed a couple of previous opportunities to see them, and was super pissed at myself each time. after the first Walken show i saw, i made it a point to see them as often as they had shows i was aware of. there was one point a couple of years ago when i saw them three times within two months and i was thrilled as fuck. friday night lived up to and my expectations and completely destroyed any part of me that would ever contribute to missing a Walken show ever again.

y'know when you're chilling right before a show and you tell yourself, 'man, if they start with (fill in your favorite song by the band here) or (fill in your very close second favorite, but possibly actually favorite song by them here)', and then the band totally plays one of the songs? that was my exact situation as Walken tore into 'Right at Home' to open their set. from there it was straight into a five song block with almost no break for applause, Walken wasn't on stage to fuck around, they were up there to melt some fucking faces...and melt them they did (musically). i tried to keep track of the set list in my head, but got way too carried away rocking the fuck out to 'Watch it Burn', 'In the city of No Seasons' and of course getting some serious headbanging in on 'Thunder Paws'. the best part of the show was undoubtedly the new tracks, keeping me eagerly awaiting new recordings from these guys. after an intense and killer set of tunes, the guys from Walken stepped off stage, leaving the audience calling out to hear 'Running Out of Time'. i checked my phone, it was still hardly 12:40,surely there was time for...and before i could finish my thought they were back. the unstoppable machine of metal badassitude that is Walken tore into 'Running Out of Time' and 'Beast Toker' providing the audience their sought after encore.

as with all the bands that played friday night, Walken is a band that strives to play music that is recognizably metal in a way that few metal bands conceptualize their music. in my opinion, Walken owned the show that night. yes i'm biased, but seriously, give 'em a listen and go to a show. you'll be blown the fuck away. seriously, go buy some of these albums. check out some samples of the bands first if you need to:

http://www.myspace.com/grayceon
http://www.myspace.com/lesbianwitch
http://www.myspace.com/walken

alright, that's it, go listen to some music fun new music...and keep it gloomy y'all.