Currently, Between the Buried and Me are on tour with Intronaut, Deafheaven, and The Kindred. I had the pleasure of seeing them live this past Friday, and was absolutely blown away! It was my first time with all of these bands, including the local opener Moments Till Fall. Every band, whether I was really into them or not, put on a fantastic show, and the tour is very much worth going to see. It’s progressive metal at its finest, and each band definitely had their own take on it! I’ll break it down further now.
Venue: Jake’s Backroom, Lubbock TX
Having deemed this the concert mecca of Lubbock for all the more intimate live shows, its got a fair restaurant up from, and spacious room to move around the merch area, with a bar in the Backroom that can provide you any libation your wicked little heart desires. The actual BR stage is somewhat small, especially with 6 bands worth of gear on it. More on that in a bit. This venue is also a smoking bar, so you get that classic haze at all live shows! Authentic! it holds quite a few people, and that came into play towards the BTBAM set. Overall, a great place to see any kind of show, for the atmosphere and the fact it also lets minors in, they just can’t leave and come back in.
Opener: Moments Till Fall
I have a fairly strict policy of not going to local band shows, predominantly because they are usually fad and scene bands. That’s just a musical preference I have about it, coupled with the volatile politics of this area, and people not wanting to help their compatriots. That having been said, I absolutely regret never having seen these guys before. They are a scene kind of band, having the typical fashion and stylings, with the musical entrapments of digitized bass drops and sampling. It only slightly detracted from the overall package, because they put on a monster of a live act. As I had said before, the stage had very, very little room, as seen in the first couple of photos, so a small are had been added to the front of it so that the front man could have some room to play with. The singer of MTF simply did away with that all together and utilized to crowd floor, to great effect. They had a solid live feel, teh sound guy had them dialed in very well, and it was as flawless as it should be for a local act on a fairly big tour. Will definitely be seeing them around, adn sadly, as with several of these bands I was seeing/hearing for the first time, I had no idea what song was what.
Grab their album HERE and HERE
Second Band: The Kindred
This band had me less enthused as they started. I had never heard them previously, so went in blind. They had everything down perfectly, all the tones, melodies, tap sections, the drummer was excellent, and the singer had some good pipes on him. It just felt rote to me. Very generic progressive metal with the way everything fit together, and just didn’t grab me the way MTF did. Now, all that was through the entire set, until the last song, Heritage, which blew me away enough to remember the damn title as I could barely hear the vocalist over the PA. This started with a sick musical progression, added to by a awesome chant that the vocalist started to throw out. It felt very impassioned and grabbing, as it did my attention, and then the singer just jumped out, the crowd cleared a small circle, and he began to just belt the song into our faces. Bouncing back and forth with the tidal nature, ebb and flow, of the song itself, he was a one man show for us there. It was spectacular. It made all the rest of the lackluster set (for me) fade away. Will go again if they’re in my area. Oh wait…. its on my iTunes….
Also grab it HERE
*Small note: I have no idea if this is how “Progressive Listeners” headbang, but it’s hilarious: small, skinny guy next to me was bobbing his entire upper body up and down, similar to doing standing crunches?, and was wringing his hands together like an evil witch over a cauldron waiting for the princess to eat the apple, then would arch back and shake clenched fists and forearms vigorously, like he just had WAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY too much caffeine. Whole set, and I couldn’t catch a pic because back lighting was non-existent to my phone.*
Third Band: Intronaut
Now Intronaut I HAVE heard of, but have none of their albums. i had just recently heard a new song and was going to snag a few before the show, but monetary restrictions kind of suck at times. Happens. Any way, their live show is MINDBLOWING. apparently I had not been listening close enough to their songs on SiriusXM, because I hadn’t realized the latent talent from all involved. the bassist had some freaky jazz hand acrobatics on his 5 string, with some amazingly fuzzed up chunk from the dual guitarists who were mirroring each other to layer their sound together over a drummer who could just lay waste whenever he wanted to. It was, all in all, one of the coolest bands I have seen live, especially when it’s a surprise. The level of talent within this band could easily have been a tour itself, but they had mercy upon us, the unworthy listeners. It’s jazzy, fuzzy, heavy, progressive, and just awesome to watch and absorb.
Get their newest album here, here, and anywhere albums are still sold. Antique auctions I think?
Fourth Band: Deafheaven
Another band I have seen the name of a few times, never heard them before the show, to my knowledge, but a great surprise as well. These guys are a juxtaposition on sound, as they have a fast, clean sounding band, one you would hear on most rock bands now, with a super acidic vocalist. IT was the clean-backed version of a black metal. Burzum with Chevelle backing them up due to a short notice flu. No song titles were given, almost no stoppage between songs, and I never heard the singer say any words that weren’t through the most serious gain filter ever installed in a throat. It was so brutal, one of the performances that just makes you wonder how he can do it at all. I was thoroughly impressed and slightly scared that something might have been summoned. I could not name a single thing he said. Out of the tour line-up, these guys are going to be the toughest to listen to, for new listeners, and for those that are more straight progressive. However, this band was about the most fun to watch for crowd watchers, they had everyone in the “pit” (not being elitist here, I just know what a real pit looks like and this wasn’t) going nuts. Similar to what an ants nest looks like if you poke it. More of a good jostling was happening than damage. Great fun!
*Note: with Deafheaven and BTBAM, I was not able to get anywhere near the front for good pics, as I made the tactical error of going to the bathroom. And Deafheaven was pretty much a no go from the back, as they had ONLY red lights. Made for terrible pics, and I couldn’t justify taking bad ones for you guys. Judge me harshly on the BTBAM pics. Apparently my phone was timed with the lights they had timed on the stage.*
Headliner: Between the Buried and Me
I have a few albums of BTBAM, and am horrible at distinguishing them! These guys are the progressive peak, in my estimation, and are never to be missed when they are in town. This was my first time seeing them live, and they were out for blood! The starter was a very heavy number, sounded like something off Alaska, with a follow up of Obfuscation (the song off the same-titled album, my favorite), and then a mish-mash of stuff I could not name at all! searched for the track listings for these shows on Google, no luck; nevertheless this show was something to behold. The guitarists are able to play anything, at any given time, and constantly were fishing out musical tastes that were both at odds and fitting with everything else. Again, pinnacle of progressive playing. Bouncing from clean, to trippy, to heavy, to jazzy, it was one 180 after another. Live is much more hectic than any album of theirs, with frequent shuffling of parts, and to some very cool, I assume, spur of the moment breakdowns. The crowd went wild at this point, with all of them eventually jumping on their toes, to just moving as one mass. It was a worship service to sonic mastery. I witnessed a great show, and they even did an encore I could not even begin to guess at, which just tore the room up. It was a longs set, as well, and my body let me know that, but well worth it!
Current discography available HERE and on iTunes.
At the end of this current tour, Between the Buried and Me have plans to shoot a new live DVD in their native state of North Carolina! Great news for all of us, and hope to see that soon!
Band Dates for the rest of the Tour HERE.
