Jucifer, Vaste Burai, One Wolf, STEW!
Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios, Denton
February 22, 2010
Better Than: Turning on the TV only to realize they're not airing Big Bang Theory this week.
Seventeen years on, husband-wife pair Amber Valentine and Edgar Livengood show no sign of letting up, and Monday night saw the sludge metal pair known as Jucifer take the stage of Rubber Gloves.
And though the the night drew an intimate crowd last night, thanks to Jucifer and the other acts on the bill, the audience experienced a manifest of rock and sludge metal acts.
Each act, it seemed, was louder and more foreboding than the one before it--and, without a doubt, ears
were ringing by the time Jucifer mercifully left the stage.
The night
was both overcoming and energizing.
When their set came to pass, the headliners sneaked on to the
stage behind thick smoke. A vivid light display and murky nebula
accompanied the rumbling, spellbinding, down-tuned guitar noise that
followed. Vocalist and guitarist Valentine thrashed around
while defiling the ax and amply screeching into her mic.
Unfortunately, the few moments that
Valentine sung in clean vocals were soft but unpleasant. It was kind of
like petting a tarantula. Meanwhile, drummer Edgar Livengood's face was sweating
and contorting in agony as he alternated between one-off strikes and
rapid bursts. Livengood occasionally bashed the toms with his fist, let
out screeches and struck the cymbals out of place.
But, even despite the miscues, the wall of sound provided by Jucifer and its support acts made for a hypnotic--if almost nauseating--display. A good thing, to be sure.
Dallas
band STEW! started the night with a Zeppelin-influenced rock followed
by the cheery jangle pop sound of Lubbock's One Wolf. Longview's Vaste
Burai warmed the small audience up for Jucifer with a sludge clamor.
Critic's Notebook
Personal Bias: I've seen a bunch of sludge bands before, so I'm quite familiar with how these shows tend to go. It was my first time seeing Jucifer, though. And thought I expected stuff of the band's new album, the headliners seemed to offer up a different set of material. No complaints here, though.
Random
note: I noticed I was one of maybe two people at this show who donned hearing protection
for these extreme metal acts. What the fuck is wrong with you people?
Granted, I made the same mistake when I saw Sun O))), but never again.
