Battles/Major Stars/Amoroso @ Great Scott - 4/5/07

The last time I saw Amoroso was in the Curry Student Center at Northeastern, when they played for an event put on by the school's radio station, WRBB. This was their CD release show and I must say, the post-rock trio have certainly come a long way since then. They are much tighter and their songs had great structure; more than just the quiet, slow build-up into an explosion of noise that most bands of that style try to pull off. The highlight of their set was a two drummer tribal-esque rock out that occurred during one of the band's newer songs. I picked up their album and definitely can't wait to check it out.

Somerville's Major Stars seemed to barely fit on the stage with their three guitarists and bassist taking up the majority of the space. They had a classic/stoner-rock vibe and it was a shame that I could barely hear the vocals. The vocalist came into the crowd and attempted to liven things up, since it was clear most of the audience wasn't too into them.

Super-group Battles took the stage and once the lead "singer" Tyondai Braxton created a simple rhythmic loop out of his vocals, they commandeered the attention of everyone there and never let up in the next hour. Although the band does do the whole "math-rock" thing, there is a much more dancey feel to some of their songs, but you have to peel back the dense layers of effects and distortions to find it. I really can't even begin to describe how incredible the drummer was, so I will just quote user natemcd of the Lemmingtrail board: "the goddamn drummer. what was that? that wasn't a drummer! that was some angry robotic malfunction, pounding railroad spikes into grenades and breathing in the explosions as fuel." I couldn't have said it better myself. I really did not think the group would be able to pull of their sound live, but I was certainly proven wrong.

Battles set list from The Great Scott - Allston, MA - 4/5/07 (also copied from lemmingtrail):
Tij, SZ2 (excerpt), TRAS, Tonto, Atlas, Race In, HI/LO (fast), encore: DANCE

More photos up on flickr as usual.

Amoroso




Major Stars







Battles