SUBTLE, SOOTHING AGGRESSION: GIANT LIVE IN BROOKLYN (w/ROSETTA, ENGINEER, AND *TOMBS*)
One ought assume that when a band’s bass player begins the set by bowing a five-string electric bass guitar (umm, yeah like with a bow used for stringed instruments such as a cello, you bloody cretin — Jimmy Page experimented as such back in the dddday-o, remember?), the subsequent rock will be, how you say, friggity fresh?? This is exactly the tone (pun ontended) that the 3-guitar large band Giant set last night at my local punk/hardcore/metal bar The Wreck Room in glorious Bushwick, Brooklyn, USA.
And while there is no question that the band certainly has something show-worthy to say (in a musical sense, of course), I can’t help but feel like the mood put forth by these guys is somewhat one-dimensional. That is slightly difficult to say given the band’s impressive quiet-loud-quiet thing, which makes it seem as if there’s a lot going on, when in fact the sound is a bit repetitive.
Vince previously referred to Giant as “soothing and brutal at the same time”, and while I totally agree (and furthermore am always impressed when a band sounds heavy without employing too much distortion/overdrive in the least), I wish that description could extend to include a bit more praise for the songwriting — however, the real star here is the group’s sense of dynamics, and dynamics alone does not an awesome band make.
Dynamics + great songs + excellent playing = ISIS.
Granted, Giant are pretty unassuming, and it appears that that is ultimately what they are going for — textural, subtle, soothing “aggressive” music… Fer chrissakes, I didn’t even realize there was a third guitar player until halfway through the band’s set! Yes the show had some excellent moments of enveloping heaviness (hoorah for VOLUME), but I fear that for me personally, listening to an album of this music might put me to sleep. That said, it is always good to have a gentle macabre heavy album on hand in case one does too much heroin and wants to die cinematically.
I totally missed the first openers, Rosetta, who I caught once before and found to be pretty damn yawn-inducing in their own right, and waited forever across the street for a fucking phenomenal chicken sandwich, which caused me to miss Engineer, who seem very worth checking out next time around. This Syracuse, NY band (who I’m told sound like a combination of Botch and Coalesce) apparently bros down with Rochester’s Achilles (a *Saturday Song To Get Stoned To* alumnus), and even recorded a split EP together, complete with awesome d.i.y. packaging/layout/design, and with each band’s half on its own disc!! I had to buy it.
But the true sight to behold (and hear) last night was Brooklyn’s own Tombs, an onslaught in trio form that I am still trying to put my goddamn finger on. These guys are awesome, no question, but ima go smoke another fat one and listen to their self-titled EP a couple hundred more times before wrapping my head around/writing about it.
In the meantime, go here for all things Tombs, and go check em out live in Cambridge, Manhattan, and/or Brooklyn in the next couple months. I’ll be the guy that elbows you in the face, then gets you wicked high, then porks yr girlfriend’s much younger sister…
Good times.
-KW
