georgian sludge-turned-boring-melodic-metal, baroness, played at the 013 last night. this band, hailing from the blue ridge mountains of my childhood, who i've seen in NC and VA, playing for a dutch audience.
i was already disappointed by the newest album when we rode towards berlin. steffan already had a place on the guest list as he was expecting me to be running around vienna rather than tilburg. we managed to get a free ticket while in line so we stood there in our free places bored and drinking our free beers.
the 1st time in richmond, i remember the topless butchies being carried over the teeming crusties. and in the nightlight in carrboro, NC, only being able to see anything because i stood on the couches by the books. they were large-statured, long-haired valkyrie-cowboy gods. i saw the swamp monster slowly rising out of the sulfurous silt of Montezuma's Revenge. green eyes glowing and scanning those in attendance. i understand this new artistic direction though i don't necessarily like it. they are good performers with clean, technical skill. they wanted more layers and more complexity so they ditched the sludged doom. i really think they could have taken the whole sludge-doom thing to a whole new level and make that more complex. but they didn't.
present baroness no longer produces horror stories. the intersections of geography, macrocultural attitudes, the ease of an identity purchased - the audience enraptured me. they bore a lot of the cultural symbols i found familiar. the red-and-black checked shirts donned by skater boys (@ least they present themselves in that way to me) with close-cropped hair and the ladies with flowered coiffures doing the rockabilly thing, etc.
maybe they were bored, too, but everyone remained crowded in the concert hall, politely quiet throughout the entirety of the show and politely clapping at the end of each song. some people bobbed their heads and throw up their hands to pose some symbol or another but they all stayed within their small circle of show-personal-space. no pushing. no excitement. no emotion at all. the front row was reserved for the professional photographers with their fancy equipment and not for the enthusiasts - my main WTF. the high stage became higher. preventing any sort of dynamic relationship between the band and the audience. why is this okay?
i miss DIY.
