This Is Where I'll Stand

HOLY SMOKE CLEANSING WAVE FRIGGIN' KILLED LAST NIGHT

Holy shit, I can't remember it being any more muggy at The Whitney House than it was yesterday. There was actually a bit of a breeze outside which was keeping things sort of cool, but as soon as you'd open the downstairs door to take a half-step inside, the air would hit you like a wall. There was so much humidity in the basement that walking around inside was like wading through a loaf of bread.

I really like the Cleansing Wave demo (and the 7" EP now, too, naturally), but the first couple of times I saw them at Whitney House, the sound was kinda murky and I couldn't really get into it (plus there was the matter of the smoke machine and the green lights, too). Last night was totally different, though -- Cleansing Wave ripped right from the start, and every song crunched and every riff was punchy as hell. I literally stood there afterwards with my mouth open going, "wow, these guys just played a hell of a set." Definitely a great band.

Oiltanker played their first show in about a year, and understandably were a bit rusty, but they still sounded like a thousand jackhammers. Jim Martin was there, shooting video of their set; he had a separate lighting set-up to try to make everything look good, it'll be interesting to see what comes out of it. I finally got to buy the Oiltanker split 12" with No Tomorrow, which is on really neat-looking swirly green vinyl, you should pick it up (plus No Tomorrow are pretty good, I'm just starting to figure that out).


Oiltanker -

"Ends Meet"

Cleansing Wave -

"Tread On"

What I Can't Do And What I Won't Do Have Become The Same Thing

I guess Oiltanker's new LP coming out just as they're about to go on a 10-month hiatus counts as a weird sense of timing (obscure reference that you won't get: "it's your delivery"), but so far it's no big deal because they kicked ass at their LP release show on Friday anyway. Oiltanker's set-up happened to be the biggest row of stacks/cabinets I have ever seen at Whitney House, meaning they were pretty loud, but the place was so packed tight with people that once I moved back about 30 or 40 feet I didn't even really need to wear earplugs. I keep hammering on the fact that I think Oiltanker are the best live band in CT, and it's because their riffs are friggin' killer, everyone in the band knows their shit, and when they're locked-on the sound is overwhelming. Their "Crusades" 7" is literally one of the best punk/HC records ever from CT and so it oughta be a tough one to top, but after a quick listen-through I think I can say that the new LP is worthy of the task. The packaging came out really nice, too-- great artwork on the sleeve, a full-sized lyric sheet (printed in two languages), plus everything's all in black and white so the overall look is really intense.

Escalator shook a little rust off in time to play a great set, also. It's been a while since the last time I've seen them (like 11 months, maybe?), which makes it kinda easy for me to lose track of how much I like their sound. Escalator's sound is really heavy and thick for "just" a two-piece, but leaves plenty of space to allow the riffs to work. I really like Ben's guitar playing-- it's Iommi heavy (taking on part of role of the bass) but still nimble and punk as fukk. Fast noisy shit with deep grooves in between, you'll like it.


Oiltanker -

"Who's In Control"

Escalator -

"Efficacy & Obsolescence"

Stick To What You're Good At

None of Oiltanker's mics seemed to be working last Friday, which in some ways maybe isn't a bad thing, but their set still plummeled anyway. As far as everything else goes, they sounded as good as ever, and you'd have a hard time finding a band that sounds better within the acoustics of the Whitney House basement better than Oiltanker... I was hoping that Cleansing Wave would blow the doors off the place, too, based upon their demo, which I've been listening to for a solid month now trying to figure the damn thing out. There's a solid layer of reverb and distortion over the recording that gives the demo a real Cult Maternal type vibe (Neon Blud/Slavescene/etc.), but with some heavy riffs underneath that I figured would only get heavier and more pronounced when the songs were played live. Except that on Friday, Cleansing Wave's sound was almost a carbon copy of their demo: same amount of reverb on the vocals, guitar on about the same level in the mix. They brought green lights with them when I was hoping they'd bring a hammer. Maybe not as insane as I had hoped, but still good. ("Toad" is a studio mp3 swiped from bandcamp, by the way, while "Nap Necessity" is my own sub-standard tape rip.)


Cleansing Wave -

"Toad"

"Nap Necessity"