Monday, February 9, 2009
The Spin The Spin: Jucifer at The End 2/6/09
Posted by The Spin on Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 9:11 AM
While perma-touring Jucifer consistently garner critical praise and the word-of-mouth surrounding the the combo's maximum volume spectacle inspires unlikely gawkers, the duo's near-yearly shows at The End are never the most buzzed-about in town. That said, The End once again hosted the sonic assault this past Friday, with the regular congregation of weirdos who welcome this annual punishment.
Local metal outfit I Am the Tower opened, and while their own monument to the almighty decibel would normally warrant special consideration, supporting a band whose live show is often noted singularly for its volume made the Tower's set of sludgey Southern metal seem more like an exercise in acclimation. Loudness aside, I Am the Tower's minor flirtations with New Wave of British Heavy Metal break up the dirgy filth and violent triple vocal attack that characterizes the bulk of their sound. A local metal band of distinction, the Tower's lead vocalist is also hands down the greatest headbanger this city has ever produced.
The night took a 30 minute downward plunge when Honeychild took to the stage. A bass and drums instrumental duo, the band strove for trancey and seemingly improvised stoner metal but ended up with an annoying and meandering mess. They would have benefited from a single interesting bassline, even though the only marginally intriguing part of the set was when the bass player stopped playing and let his amp feed back while the drummer clumsily banged out some do-re-mis on a keyboard. But it wasn't intriguing enough to compensate for the five minutes of aimlessness it entailed.
Between sets, Mastodon's Leviathan played over the house speakers. Jucifer didn't take the stage until the record had nearly played in its entirety. A wait that long, preceded by the aforementioned 30 minutes, might have resulted in an early exit had it been any other record. But when Jucifer guitarist/vocalist Amber Valentine finally appeared, it looked pretty friggin' awesome.
Valentine writhed like the reanimated dead inside a cloud of smoke and pulsing lasers while banging out droney power chords--totally badass and creepy. The speaker cabinet count was fewer than at past Jucifer shows we had seen (about 10), but the cabs were bigger and better this time. The volume was the same as it's ever been but with greater clarity than we had heard in the past.
Still, the gambit of styles in which Jucifer dabble on record are hard to discern live. The fast, hardcore punk songs often result in a wash of white noise, but the slow Sleep-inspired riffs are stretched to the point of collapsing, with every drum hit an event and every chord change in your gut. A colleague said upon leaving The End that they'd be the sort of a band a deaf person could enjoy seeing live.
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