The appeal of Lightning Bolt?

see them live

But I can totally see being bored by it, cuz they is kinda a one-trick pony. BUT GOD DO I GET A KICK OUT OF THAT TRICK!

go for it dood, but what does that have to do with Lightning Bolt?

and saw them on accident two days later cause they played with arab on radar and the locust and all of those bands actually confronted the crowd in one way or another.

again with lightning bolt on the floor and they just pounded us. we were the sheep, you see.

and freshly fuckin sheered, breeze on my back for once, i went home smiling cause it's really just pop music.

no real canned formula but still catchy. some might say they sound like the ruins, but the catchiness is what takes them where the ruins don't go cause they're more happy to be in more abstract lands.

all the perfect seeds of actual rock and roll rebellion were there....
m.

check out "13 monsters": proggy, catchy, hardcore and fun/funny.

One thing I've been thinking about is that, well, you gotta have BALLS to get up and do music like this in front of people; play this shit for the wrong crowd and that's one stage you probably won't ever play on again.

lightning bolt is an awesome band...and if you think they sound like noise...then you really haven't heard Noise. LB are pretty far from noise, it's ALL rhythm...bass and drums...it almost walks the line of being Techno/Dance Music. There are Noise elements there...but it's far from Merzbow.

Go see them live.

bbbbut, im not an ass.

GO SEE THEM LIVE!

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1326969

It sums up that show pretty well.

Also, does anyone have a GOOD recording of the shows w/ Sonic Youth?

Now Crom Tech on the other hand...

crom tech. woot. didn't that dude make his own language?

m.

Also, let's bait godheadSilo and Ruins fans!

i like hydrospooglahboogalahimom,howareyou,aabbccddeeffgg or whatever it's called tho. a few nice moments.
m.

There are two. The one on Tzadik isn't great, but the one on Paratactile is amazing. Freer, and more metal, at once.

Very impressive musicianship, but they could use some diversity in their songwriting.

I'm just not really as impressed with virtuoso drummers and high volume as I used to anymore, so that might have a lot to do with it.

haven't heard any of the collabs but what makes that record 'more freer'? I don't quite understand that.

yeah, and for once, I actually had the chance one time! I kinda think Colossus is pretty great if not necessarily what I was hoping for from them.

http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/conservation/indoors/leak.jpg

I like the new album

The last track is killin me.

Like what I've heard. Kinda gives off a Gravitar/Helios Creed/Hawkwind vibe at points, less of a spastic joy than their other stuff.

I like it. it sounds like lightning bolt. but I've come to accept that they'll never really change all that much and that this is OK.

last track does indeed rule. love the little dubby touches on the drums that pop off here and there.

listening again... middle stretch kinda drags, huh?

No way does it drag. Solid all the way through

just not feelin' the stretch from "colossus" thru "funny farm" as much as the openers/closers. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

I still can't get all that into Colossus, though The Sublime Freak and Funny Farm are two of my favorite songs thus far.

I'm listening to that Megasus album right now, ain't half bad.

HOLY SHIT. got back from a denver show. best concert i've experienced all year - i typically go to about 1-3 a weekend, no fail.

do they still set up the drumkit in the middle of the room?

loud, dark, and lots of rubbing. rolling on 12 beers also helped. lightning bolt dudes are also v v friendly - didn't ask for autographs and such but was kinda bewildered that they came out and started in on conversation w/ "us" like their was absolutely no facade of celebrity to be seen.

xpost

oh man, i wish i had pics. the drum kit was set against a wall, so yeah, there was no 360surround for them. still packed - had an incredibly hard time breathing at times.

and maybe i'll just reserve all my thoughts for some kind of blog post, but i now have newfound appreciation for mosh pits. we had another band, Hot White (they opened for No Age and share a v v similar aesthetic) & when the mosh went down there i really thought it the most cliche pronouncement of asshole-ishness: no concern for other ppl, trying to gain some sort of limelight, knocking other ppl's beers over and hitting them in the face (etc).

the fact that when LB played did EVERYONE partake in the mosh-pit p much quelled all that (save for the prudes in the very edges of the show who seemed to not want to be their, period). i mean half the fun was jumping over the crowd to actually SEE LB... & i love crowd mentality, that when you start doing something everyone else follows. it was seriously like being 9 again.

k im done.

you saw lightning bolt when you were 9??

4th grade field trip

i mean half the fun was jumping over the crowd to actually SEE LB.

that is something that not everyone finds fun. Some people prefer hanging back.

All comments should be filed under: imo

the last time i saw them, they had a big mirror, so that people could still see the band without fighting for space up front. I thought that was cool.

same, actually! one of those grocery-store-ish mirrors of ye olde, but oversized massively. but trouble was was that the lightsman turned off p much everything for 10minutes at a time (just the moonlight from the big garage door coming in), or we just had xmas light lining the roof. i typically kinda hate dim lighting or just general fucking w/ them, but it worked very well here. surprisingly little groping.

cool - I'm seeing them on Tuesday in Oakland. I like the opening bands for their SF show better than the ones on the Oakland bill, but the SF venue has really shitty sound for a band like Lightning Bolt. Like, it's possibly the worst venue in SF I could think of for them to play.

I saw them at Kimo's 10 years ago... that was a pretty awful venue (soundwise).

Steve, they're playing at rickshaw, which is just super super dead.

Seen them twice before and experienced much the same thing. I'm too old for moshing and started off hanging back but over the course of the show felt the urge to get to where the music was coming from. By the end was standing over Chippendale feeling the snare hits go through me.

yeah - don't think i'll ever mosh again no matter how many drinks are in me, but this was a situation that rly encouraged it. you could either wait out at the fringe and tap your toes and limit yourself to not seeing a damn thing... or join the mosh and move up at least 30ft in what i assume is the closest reenaction of medieval combat there is today.

the cool thing about seeing/hearing them in a resonant warehouse space is that you can hang back and the sound is still monumental.

First time I saw them was at Emos in Austin where people were standing on the stage and the BAR to see them.

xpost
ah, yes! i did not envy anybody who saw them at coachella.

i wish i could travel more - rly interested in seeing what other town's art/warehouse-ish venues are like.

what venue did you see them in, k?

...xxpost

haha i allowed a girlfriend of mine to stand on my shoulders. there were kids climbing the speakers (the big, tall, stacked type) to see them. a particularly clever dude attempted to crawl his way into the forefront, tho i might have the refrain from the "clever" part as i'm not sure he made it.

rhinoceropolis! it's the only thing we have here going for DIY stuff anyway... aside from a couple in the nearby college towns which really aren't worth a damn.

That's what I thought -- from what i've heard it's a great place. Everyone I know who has toured through has said that Rhinoceropolis was one of their favorite tour stops.

you i wouldn't know as i haven't lived much anywhere else save for denver (or at least anywhere else after having been 18yrs old.. i've moved plenty). i guess we benefit from a particularly friendly vibe? whatever it is that LB is "from" - their own garage venue I can't remember the name of... well, anyway, judging from the pics it really kicks our ass.

denver gets passed over by touring bands so much as well too (usually rather going south to texas than hitting up), so this happened to be a really big deal... typically the place doesn't fill up with more than 40-60 people max.

i go there pretty often - any of these aforementioned bands toured here recently?

Denver is convenient for going from Seattle to Ann Arbor/Chicago/Twin Cities/Wisconsin -- as far as noise band touring goes.

Going to see LB live isn't a revelatory experience. If you don't like them going in, you probably won't like them going out.
They put on a good "show" though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6q8jYXqrcg

The Black Pus album is one of my favourite of the year so far.

Annnnnd

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/premieres/hear-lightning-bolts-first-recording-in-six-years-the-metal-east-20150210

Wait til you hear the whole album.

Lightning Bolt tour dates:
04/15 Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk Place
04/16 Columbus, OH @ Double Happiness
04/17 Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
04/18 Ferndale, MI @ The Loving Touch
04/19 Chicago, IL @ The Empty Bottle
04/20 Saint Paul, MN @ Turf Club
04/21 St. Louis, MO @ The Luminary Center for the Arts
04/22 Lawrence, KS @ Jackpot Music Hall
04/24 Denver, CO @ GLOB
04/25 Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
04/27 Boise, ID @ The Shredder
04/28 Seattle, WA @ Neumos
04/29 Portland, OR @ Dantes
05/01 San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
05/02 Oakland, CA @ Leo’s
05/03 Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex
05/04 Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room
05/05 San Diego, CA @ Casbah
05/06 Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
05/08 Austin, TX @ Austin Psych Fest
05/09 New Orleans, LA @ Siberia
05/10 Atlanta, GA @ Mammal Gallery
05/11 Raleigh, NC @ Kings
05/12 Washington, D.C. @ Rock & Roll Hotel
05/13 Baltimore, MD @ Floristree
05/14 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
05/15 Brooklyn, NY @ The Wick
05/16 New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge

Ah, I already have the whole album. Yay promos.

Wish they were playing somewhere else in Seattle, but it should be fun. Looks like Liturgy will be supporting? Would have preferred Guardian Alien!

Saw them on the Oblivion Hunter tour in a Mexican restaurant and it was a pretty top-tier experience. So loud that across the street, in my car, it sounded just a hair quieter than it did inside.

That Thumper game looks really cool.

05/01 San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
05/02 Oakland, CA @ Leo’s

these are such odd choices for venues

i saw them play at that bowling alley in Chicago that usta have shows, wanna say 2002.

this album, y'all

:D