Neurosis
15th February 2017
Kings Arms Tavern, Auckland, New Zealand
Review by Kate Taylor. Photography by Matt Henry Mendonca.
An oppressively humid Auckland night with heavy, grey pendulous clouds was the all too appropriate setting at a mid-week Kings Arms, foreshadowing the heavy stoner doom treats we were about to witness. With the scent of beer and later armpit and plumes of puff riding on the air, the atmosphere was calmly excited as metal mates and band members passed, congregated around the bar and beer garden to buzz about Neurosis and how long that particular person had been waiting to see them; giving further sadness that one day in the not too distant future, The Kings Arms will no longer be the home of the ‘other’ when it comes to musical nights out.
Without fuss New Zealand’s Old Loaves (based in Auckland, Hamilton and sometimes Wellington) took to the stage and pretty much melted my face right off. Old Loaves were so good in fact, that I forgot I was there supposed to be reviewing them, as I escaped into their passageways of sound. For just Cameron’s minimal Tama kit, Old Loaves are fiercely percussive with solid groove and melded with great vocal harmonies by Benjamin. These lads although only recently adding John to the Bass duties, are in sync with each other and bringing a heavy as, kinda Helmet meets QOTSA mix with Kylesa stoner groove slabbed on top. With Old Loves’s red streaked with white lighting set up, their whole stage appeared like the bloodshot eyes of a full time baker. Old Loaves are mesmeric with their undulating waves of thick, sludgy rhythm. With a Baroness tinge but somehow weightier, each member loses themselves in the composition, trashing on-stage, punishing the skins or slamming their fist against the bass; combined with the impressiveness of this trio stopping on a dime at the end of a track. I know I said ‘wow’ under my breath after each song was delivered to my cochlea, which was only more remarkable as we traversed deeper into their set list. As their stage was smothered in smoke for the last song we were left in propulsive elegy and it was brilliant.
Anticipation for Neurosis was high and from the moment they took stage, it got very hot inside the Kings Arms, as if everyone’s anticipation to see the band turned into degrees of temperature instantly. Long and slow simmered, Neurosis’s riffs felt like some spit roasted offering, turning and turning until it weevils into your brain; as a droning, disembodied sample quacks in the background and discombobulates. As Scott Kelly, Steve Von Till, Dave Edwardson, Noah Landis and Jason Roeder maraud before us, these screaming be-tattooed lords of Valhalla wreck through their first track and are meet with huge applause. Without speaking to the audience once, Neurosis demonstrated their ire formidably with their synchronised and intense soundscapes with sweat running down their arms or dripping from their noses, betraying the mirage and confirming that yes, what I’m seeing and listening to, is being created by humans. Noah would lean out his keyboard rig into the audience, teetering dangerously to losing control. In a sort of methadone speed waltz, the music encircled around me with the effect of a tortoise lumbering through molasses and then shocked me out of the trance as Jason propelled a change in drum pattern, that literally made my heartbeat skip and change in reaction to the sheer force coming from the kick drum.
So heavy in fact was the offering before us that it felt as though I was bewitched, my feet fixed to the floor and numb from the gravity of the sheer heaviness of Neurosis’s tunes; pushing me to the earth as the Kings Arms floor bubbled up beneath me in a swampy bog of melody as Steve affixed us with an icy blue Manson gaze and shook like a demon possessing. Dave is really the one to watch however. At the mic, Dave sounds like the howl of a hell hound as he dislocates his jaw to allow all the bile to spew forth, shaking his head violently like some beast breaking the neck of its prey in its teeth, as only the whites of his eyes are visible, as the balls roll wildly in their sockets. Perhaps the most measured of the evening, Scott loses his shit in the final song; sadistically head butting the mic and sending it swaying into the crowd on its stand.
With a shell shocking recital like this, there is no need for an encore and as the feedback swelled and the stage turned blue, the phenomenon’s that are Neurosis unassumingly left the stage and all assembled before them, trembling.
Were you there at The Kings Arms Tavern to witness this heavy show? Or have you seen Neurosis somewhere else? Tell me about it in the comments below!
Setlist:
- Lost
- The Web
- A Shadow Memory
- Locust Star
- Fire Is The End Lesson
- Takeahnase
- Broken Ground
- At The End Of The Road
- Bending Light
- The Doorway
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