Birdmonster @ Great Scott, 6.12 holy shit.

these were, in effect, the only words i became capable of saying last night once Birdmonster took the first stage of their east coast/national tour.

and now. and: holy shit.

when the dear headliners finally took the stage, i literally laughed out loud at the complete explosion of sound and energy. their opener, Ice Age, was perfect - slow, resounding, misleading... until the two minute mark. then BAM. it's the fucking ICE AGE. they went to the album opener - Skeleton Suit - and everything was clear. they're amazing. they are an atomic bomb: at one moment, all start up and collide their parts together simultaneously, their sound and energy exponentially climbing in a chain reaction until their eyes are closed in rapture at the sound and the feel of what they've created. they blow up the stage, surging high above the intimate audience setting and creating a mushroom cloud of in-your-face rock. Frontman Peter will turn to bassist Justin and have a glint in his eye, hunching over his guitar and kicking one foot out, hopping from his mic and shedding sweat and spit and absolutely shredding it. he rocks his cowboy boots with a spin and a shimmy up to the edge of the stage, one foot on a floor-placed amp, all up in our faces with the smirk and the sexed-up look in his eyes. meanwhile, David has been flipping out, throwing himself and his guitar around, almost jumping into Zach's mesmorized (crazed?) drum playing. Justin is in his own world, bent over the bass with elation and drive. drive for more sound, bigger, rising, growing, booming right out of the joint and into the street. anyone walking by Harvard and Comm at midnight (besides most likely being a sketchy figure) was being indirectly radiated with the nuclear energy coming from little 'ol Great Scott. oh, man. rock on. rock on.

of course, to begin with, we had to wait through two bands chubby and flushed with passion but skinny on talent. did i say that? yes i did. i can't help it. the first, Age Rings, was only a local band, not on the tour, selling albums in ziploc bags - yet they were the preferred of the two. funny guys. they wanted to break out and get down - they had the potential energy. round ball at the top of an incline, they were. but they just didn't have it. was the stage too small for seven people? no - Margot & TNSAS's are eight, and they got the ball rolling. ...and The Talk - well. i apologize. they were at SxSW, they've been on that WB show, and i'm sure their album is great... and, well. we went to Store 24. (i know, i know, we're awful.) they're from one of the Carolinas and they're on tour with BM, and you might like them more than we did, if you see them. but in the end, it's all worth the wait, trust me.

we didn't have to be slick to grab this set list. in fact, we ended up with two.

ice age
skeleton suit
cause you can
balcony
the bar in the back of the basement
ball of yarn
alabama
resurrection song
janine
all the holes in the walls

[[[it must be noted that prior to the show, i was in quite a bit of agony at having to choose between The Boy Least Likely To at TT's, and Birdmonster at Great Scott. it turned out, of course, that it may have been possible to go to both, and we just planned poorly. and yes, even with the incredible show i witnessed, even with the jumping jamming crazy good time - i still feel a little remorse at missing the alternative. sigh.]]]

definitely buy the album, if you haven't already. we spoke to Justin for a while after the show and he was all excited to learn i had the album already. because if you love music, you love the people that make it, and you want them to eat and pay van rental fees. so you buy their things. yep. novel concept.

p.s. i need me a better camera, or a better flash, or a better system, something else. the pics i have here do not even come close to showing the crazy energy they had, because all of those are blurry (think light-trails) with movement. we have a flickr thing coming up though, so don't fret.  shan  9:52 AM  |  view comments (3)