Links:
Autechre

And Russell Haswell had an annoying habit of cutting off whatever he was working on (I hesitate to call it a "song" since that would imply certain musical structures which were completely lacking) just as it reached some semblance of rhythm. It was like we were trapped in the attic bedroom of a first year DJ who has a couple Merzbow and Cannibal Corpse records and a mixer with a broken volume knob and a cross-fader that moved on its own accord.

At some point, Autechre came on stage and did their thing. Their "thing" seems to have skated off the far edge of the world and dropped off into the vacuum where there is also sorts of space for their beats to lose all connection to their requisite melodic structures. Interesting in a technical sort of "I wonder how long it took them to program that beat sequence" kind of way. Dull in the "I should be listening to this at home on a stereo that I can actually turn down the sound enough to hear what's going on" kind of way. Repetitive in a "it's midnight already and they're going to do this for another hour?" kind of way. Long crowned the Kings of IDM, I can't tell if Autechre is pissing on all their subjects and most of the audience was too wrapped up in the "it's incomprehensible and has little or no musical content so it must be real art" mindset to care; or they've actually transcended our existence and are piping in the music from the next sphere. If it the latter is the case, I don't think I'm ready for the transcendence. In the case of the former, I think I got out of there early enough that I didn't get much more than my shoes wet.

-Mark Teppo
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The Braindead/
Punchdrunk/Barbie Car
@
Zak's
May 12, 2001
Seattle, WA

Barbie Car, the first band that we saw, plodded along at a mid-pace that threatened to pummel anything in its path--churning out the riffs and throaty vocals, creating a massive thundering wallop upside your head such that you needed to clear things up with a few beers.

Next up were the band Punchdrunk from Canada. These Canucks have tons of talent, spewing out their blend of death metal and doom, but most of their songs tended to sound the same. Punchdrunk were thankful that the Melvin's show ended earlier and some of their fans showed up to hear them as the band describe themselves as a faster version of the Melvins. The drummer was absolutely amazing, throwing in the double bass and immense pounding of the skins.

Most of the crowd had left before Braindead took the floor, er...stage. Braindead were the highlight of the evening. The singer was topless and painted red, in honor of their new release Red. Also, you should have seen the things he did with his blow-up doll! Braindead made fast thundering hardcore look easy. I mean, the guitar player looked like he was hardly moving his hands, but the wall of sound that he produced was simply great. The band took backstage to the antics of the singer and his little plastic friend, and other props like the spray string he used for ejaculate. For all of you in the Seattle area, you need to take the time to come out and see Braindead. These guys put on a very good show!

-Steve Weatherholt
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Links:
Cannibal Corpse
Dimmu Borgir
The Haunted

The opening act tonight was the up and coming much-talked-about Lamb of God. Lamb of God put on a good show, but I did not see what all the hoopla was about. They play run-of-the-mill death metal with nothing to lead me to believe that they are unique or sound different than others.

Sweden's The Haunted came out full-tilt, threatening to destroy the place with their aggressiveness. The Haunted put on an amazing display of hardcore/thrash. This in turn created chaos in the pit with many bodies bludgeoning themselves into a bloody mess. The stage was a bit reduced in size due to Dimmu Borgir's equipment already set-up equipment--thus looking cramped and contained. Otherwise, these guys could have had more freedom to move about. Still, The Haunted put on a show that was excellent and not to be missed.

Finally Norway's demigods of black metal, Dimmu Borgir, took the stage in full white-corpse paint. I was very disappointed in the style or type of metal these Norwegian's played. It reminded me of a poor man's gothic music with high-pitched unintelligible demonic vocals. A thought kept popping into my head about the vocalist going home after a hard day's work and his wife asking him how his day was. "Oh you know honey, this black metal evil stuff gets harder and harder to perform. Another day of singing about evil crap." This performance seemed all contrived and fake. I was not impressed at all and could not see what the attraction to this band was or is.

Finally the band everyone was waiting for took the stage. Cannibal Corpse proved to all that there was absolutely no fucking around. The bloodied bodies that lay smeared on the floor picked themselves up for the final blood bath. Cannibal Corpse created mayhem across the room. What a spectacular show they put on. Bloody death metal roared forth and the masses followed suit. I was extremely impressed with the quality of Cannibal Corpse's music, but, then again, having over ten plus years of experience shined through. Cannibal Corpse flat-out can create chaos. From the moment they took the stage until it ended--these guys had control of the room.

-Steve Weatherholt
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Links:
Placebo

However, that was still a few guitar changes away, and during that time Placebo showed us why they've climbed to the top of the UK charts. Even though the music at times relied too much on loops and samples--which is fine, except when almost entire songs are played without the band touching an actual instrument (that's called a jukebox, friends). And even though Brian Molkmo's voice sounds like Rush's Geddy Lee with a bad head cold, his clever and unabashed lyrical approach to the politics of sexuality, along with the band's knack for writing catchy riffs that feel at home both on the dance floor and in the rock hall, provide a deliciously deadly combination on songs like the slow-burner "My Sweet Prince," "Without You I'm Nothing," and one of my favorites of the night, "Commercial for Levi." And it made the steady stream of guitar changes and all the other egoveridden eccentricities of the evening almost humorously tolerable. Almost.

-Craig Young
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