Monday, November 10, 2008
The Spin The Spin: The Protomen, Eureka Gold & Shoot the Mountain at 12th & Porter
Posted by The Spin on Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 11:22 AM
Believe it or not, The Spin is capable of arriving on time—we showed up at 12th & Porter (which these days slightly resembles a Christian rec center) just after 9 p.m. From the outset we definitely detected the unmistakable odor of nerd ball sweat—a scent that was to grow more and more overpowering as the night wore on. We ignored it the best we could as we shoved through the proletariat to grab our first beer of the evening.
Considering the last time we caught Shoot the Mountain they were playing The Boro at 1 a.m. before an extremely sparse crowd, it was surreal to see them engulfed in smoke and bathed in purple light for 100+ folks, some of whom had come from thousands of miles away. We genuinely enjoyed Shoot the Mountain’s set as they channeled their classic rock influences with extended, riffing jams. Their newer material sounds a bit like Gang of Four, and they were easily goaded into playing an encore song. Protomen fans seemed to appreciate STM in the way that a robot from the future might view a record player—head tilted to the side, intrigued and impressed though not fully able to compute its function.
With Eureka Gold backlit and a magenta spotlight in our face as they started their set, it was difficult to make out Scene staffer Adam Gold behind the drum kit, but we knew he was there from his bombastic, sundry fills. Our typical complaint about Eureka Gold is that we can never hear keyboardist Adam White’s clever parts, and while sound was a bit strange (very dry, out-in-front vocals), he was perfectly audible during a couple of songs. Singers Jordan Lehning and Buddy Hughen demonstrated their prowess by splitting vocal duties on songs like “Peter Oh” and “Animal Farm.”
12th & Porter’s Houses of the Holy Tour-era light scaffolding and five—count ‘em, five—disco balls were finally put to full use once The Protomen took the stage. Seeing The Protomen’s avid, fist-pumping superfans crowd the stage was like witnessing a ritual you don’t fully understand. As the madness ensued—black and white propaganda flashing on screens above our heads, ceremonious helmet-tossing, seizure-inducing strobes flashing and spinning as a pulsating wall of sound issued forth from their dozen speaker cabinets—we posted up by the merch table so as not to be trampled.
The Protomen opened with Thin Lizzy’s “Jailbreak,” though it was their old standards and sneak-peeks at new material that got the fanboys (and definitely a handful of fangirls) gyrating so hard they were each pushing their glasses up their noses on every downbeat. The Protomen performed “No Easy Way Out” off the Rocky IV soundtrack—the B-side off a single that was free with entry—with near flawless, aptly triumphant vocals. But when the rock gods started in on their encore, we heard the cheesy opening strains of what could only be the most epic arena-metal song of all time. That’s right: “The Final Countdown.” We took its completion as a damn fine cue to take our party elsewhere.
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