In my
review of the latest full-length from Sunn O))), I state that "
Monoliths And Dimensions" may just be the album of the year. Skull agrees. He ends up being the lucky one this time around, as Sunn O)))'s appearance in Los Angeles will not occur until August 11th. However, Sunn O))) flattened Chicago on July 2, and Skull was there (did he fall asleep beforehand?)...
Bands: Sunn O))), Eagle Twin, Chord
Venue: Empty Bottle, Chicago, Illinois
Date: July 2, 2009
"I should have taken the Goddamn train. Taste of Chicago, the beginning of a holiday weekend for most, and the stupid Cubs game (they won, too bad) made for an awfully bad commute down to the Empty Bottle for the Sunn O))) show that would kick off their tour of the Midwest.
After I lost the
loser Cubbie fans at Irving Park Rd. and then at Addison St., I moved a bit quicker down I-94 to Division, then to Western, and then, finally, to the club. I could have slept on the train. Being obscenely early for the show as I am with most shows, I was able to park just up the street from the bar. I decided to grab a bite at the aptly named Bite Café, which is joined to Empty Bottle at the hip. While walking past Empty Bottle I could clearly hear Sunn O))) doing their sound check. I popped into Bite and grabbed a table. I asked the waiter for a barley pop and he told me it was BYOB. But, I could sneak through the secret door in between the club and the diner and grab one at the bar. I entered through the door and into a wall of fog obscuring the hallway and openings to the other rooms. I took a left and groped my way through and saw the stage lit up in front of me with none other than Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley in their civvies discussing the details of the sound check. They were obviously testing the fog machine as well. I wanted to crawl into a corner and just watch but I slinked up to the bar instead and ordered my drink, although I could not read the chalkboard menu due to the dense fog. When I returned to the diner, I was treated to a rehearsal of bits of “Aghartha” and “Hunting And Gathering (Cydonia)” through the walls. The waiter at Bite told me he had heard many sound checks before, but none this loud. I then ate the best Green Curry dish I have ever ordered anywhere.
After eating, I took a couple pics of the outside of the club, wandered inside, sat at the bar, and watched the other musicians tune up. Empty Bottle is pretty much a small dive (and I say that in the most complimentary way) with a long bar and a small stage in the corner. It can hold maybe 250 people max. There were just a couple of patrons there that early. I decided to take a look around and almost literally bumped into O’Malley and Anderson as they were moving equipment around. I wanted to shake their hands and thank them for playing Chicago but I didn’t want to be a douche so I gave them an acknowledging nod which was returned and I moved on.
At 8:00pm sharp, a bar employee started taking our bar stools out from under us in preparation for the show (“chicken wire?”) I noticed that a long line had formed outside of the club with people waiting to get in for the show. I guess I snuck in under the ropes just in time, so I was able to get an up close look at the bands. The doors opened and the concert goers started to fill the room. I noticed that the cool kids were drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon beer like they had been doing at Bottom Lounge when I was there awhile back for WITTR. I checked the merchandise table, grabbed a M & D tour shirt, and then ran it out to my car.
At 9:30pm sharp,
Chord, a local band, started up their set. At this point I had no idea a third band had been added to the bill, but I knew there must have been a third because one band tuned up with a drum kit and this band had no drum kit on stage. Chord simply flattened the crowd with a 35-minute set consisting of one piece of rolling drone. It was loud, heavy, very interesting, and held my attention the whole time. One of the band’s guitarists looked very familiar to me but I couldn’t place him. They were a 5-piece ensemble with 4 guitars (I couldn’t see how many were bass) and one guy who seemed to be operating a sound effects box or something. After the set, I talked to someone who told me the band’s name and that the guitarist I recognized is a member of Pelican.
After a 25-minute change over,
Eagle Twin (from Utah) started up. Eagle Twin is a two-man band. One member covers the bass/vocals and the other is the drummer. When they began I didn’t have high hopes for the set but they really impressed me. The bassist was using a six string and worked the thing over like no other bassist I had ever seen. It wasn’t finesse bass like Geddy Lee or Les Claypool. He played that instrument like it was a lead guitar, rhythm guitar, and a bass at the same time. I had to look close to see if he was using a Warr Guitar or something because he was able to make so many different sounds at the same time. They plowed through a 35-minute, two-song set of killer stoner doom like nobody’s business. The drummer was right on the money and they proved they didn’t need any other guitars to complicate their music. They looked like they were treating the set as a garage rehearsal and they really seemed to have a great time. I was so impressed with them that I bought their yet to be released debut CD.
After a 45-minute change over in which Stephen, Greg, and their Moog operator did last minute sound checks and fog machine checks, they disappeared off of the stage for a few minutes. Then, the fog machine started going full blast and filled the room up. By now I had moved up and was one person deep and dead center of the stage. The house lights went down and the hooded members of Sunn O))) took the stage through the fog to roaring applause. They were silent, slow moving, and seemed to be indifferent to the crowd’s reaction although one of them, I couldn’t tell who, did hold up a bottle of wine in a cheers motion.
They began their set by starting up “Aghartha”. My intestines started shaking and my eardrums started rumbling and I smiled with satisfaction. I had waited a long time to see these guys and if it meant I’ll go deaf two years ahead of schedule because of it, then so be it! They were incredible and everything I hoped them to be. After the long instrumental intro to “Aghartha”, Attila joined them on stage looking like the fucking grim reaper minus the scythe with his tattered hooded monk’s robe so deep I couldn’t see any facial features at all. But his signature voice gave him away and everyone knew he’d be there anyways. “Aghartha” is a great song and it seemed to be somewhat challenging for Sunn O))) to pull it off live. They did an excellent job, but the ending of the song is somewhat anti-climactic and sort of just drifts. They pulled out of it by ripping into “Hunting And Gathering (Cydonia)”. Holy shit, it was so loud and heavy! Attila’s voice is so incredible that it just changes into another instrument with heavy distortion complimenting the others. I was blown away.
After that, I was somewhat confused as to what they played next. It had many attributes of “Big Church”, but wasn’t exactly the same. I didn’t recognize it as anything else. It was incredibly loud glacial drone. There were points that sounded exactly like “Big Church” and others that came out of nowhere. Towards the end, Attila started screaming in a high pitched but not overly loud way. Greg and Stephen then went from amp to amp and turned them all up and held their guitars up close for the monster feedback. It was the loudest sound I have ever experienced and almost took me to my threshold. They let themselves go from incredibly loud to a soft hum and wrapped up the set to crowd that was initially stunned to silence. Then everyone started to wake from the trance and gave them one of the longest ovations I’ve ever seen a metal band get. By now they had pulled their hoods down and were acknowledging and thanking the crowd. Attila seemed to be very touched by their reception and voiced his gratitude before leaving the stage.
At this point, it was 1:15am and I needed to make a quick getaway so I could get home and write this up. Sunn O))) pulled out a Hell of a show tonight, and I feel honored to have been there. This was a show I will probably not forget for the rest of my life, even in senility…"
Skull's pics!
Chord
Eagle Twin
Sunn O)))
The t-shirt haul...
Maybe I can convince Steph to go with me to this one...
