Saturday September 14, 2008 at some empty lot at 979 Broadway Brooklyn: Lightning Bolt and Growing

The evening was already off to a bad start when we arrived at 5:45 and not a single band had played yet. The show was supposed to start at 3:30. Since it seemed extremely unlikely that lightning bolt would play before 8:30 or even 9, and since I had skipped lunch, we took a bus back to Clinton Hill, ate dinner and returned just in time for Growing. So we missed all of the other bands. I guess this will be the pattern for all of these reviews. There was a time when I'd spend my whole day at a music venue and would see every band that plays. But I'm too old for that now. Or at least I feel that way. So we probably missed about 2 or 3 bands. Whatever. If you want the full review go somewhere else. I only really cared about Lightning Bolt

But we were there for the entire Growing set. Anyone who's seen Lightning Bolt before, knows it's good to at least be there for the first band so that you can save a spot by the band's equipment. Lightning Bolt usually starts playing right after the band before them, and they never play on stage. More on this later.

So Growing. Not sure what to say here. I was mildly surprised to see that their music was made entirely (or mostly. I was to the side of the stage and didn't have a perfect view) with guitars. My old roommate had played their albums a few times, and it sounded like stuff made with computers or keyboards. Apparently they're able to get those ambient noises with guitars. Unfortunately, it's still not very interesting. A friend of mine who's friends with one of the members in the band mentioned that they were disappointed with their performance. I'm really not sure if I would have been able to tell the difference between that and a "good" performance.

As Growing reached the end of their set, the space by Lightning Bolt's equipment became extremely tight. Unfortunately, because of some technical difficulties, Lightning Bolt wasn't able to play right when Growing finished. In fact, they took about as long as any other band would take to finally play. Unfortunately, this didn't seem to matter much to the crowd who had started to push and shove before the band even started. I guess there's some excuse. Brian Chipendale was looping his vocals, and several times I saw Brian Gibson pick up his bass guitar and I thought the show was about to start. But the level of pushing and shoving was so bad that I thought we were going to fall on the band. And they hadn't even started playing!

Once they did, I didn't last long. I made it through one song, decided that this was too much hassle for too little payoff. Plus, I didn't feel like being drenched in sweat for the rest of the evening. My girlfriend had already left before the band had even started playing. I didn't blame her. So I stayed up front for the first song and then made my way back to the stage where I hoped to be able to see something. I really couldn't see much beyond the crowd. For most of the set I could just see the head of the bassist. At one point I was standing on a speaker and was able to see both band members, but that didn't last long.

Removed from the scene, it was really hard to get into the music. With the distance, I didn't really need my earplugs at all. Since the joy of listening to Lightning Bolt --both live and in the studio- is being overwhelmed by their sound, this really took a lot out of the show. The set was entirely "new" (they also played a set of almost entirely new material in January of 2007, so I'm not sure what songs were repeated and what songs were actually new) set except for Megaghost at the end. A few of the songs were really good, but at such a distance, I wasn't able to get into it as I have in the past.

When I first saw Lightning Bolt, I thought it was one of the best shows I'd ever seen. They had caught me totally off guard when they began playing immediately after the preceding band. While I never got close enough to see much of anything, I was close enough to hear the band perfectly. There was no shoving or pushing, and I was able to just enjoy being overwhelmed by their sound.

The 2nd and third times I saw them, I was smart enough to save myself a spot at the front. Both times I left drenched in sweat and aching from nearly an hour of battle with the rest of the audience. I spent a lot of time at both shows thinking I was about to be pitched over the drumset. With the amps and the drums right in front of me and the exhaustion of holding back the mob behind me, I was truly blown away. I remember one song in particular from that last show that was just one extremely repetitive and low bass riff that just drove me insane. I left both shows deliriously happy and exhausted.

But now, I just wish they would grow up and play on the stage. Maybe I would have been able to enjoy watching from afar last night if the show had been indoors. With walls holding their sound in, I think they would have been a lot louder. But now that Lightning Bolt is a fairly famous noise act that can draw 100s of people to their shows, their shows have become an orgy of violence that makes the music really hard to enjoy. I'm sure there are people out there who'd disagree, but for me the novelty of not being able to see Lightning Bolt has worn off.