boris 1/foto: osVolume. Massive Volume. it's interesting to see how in the last few years the Amps getting the status of and instrument, just like the guitar and the drums. since the all doom-stoner-drone-metal revolution, led by Stephen O'Malley and his gang, More and more people are neglecting the sound system and the PA in favour of walls and walls of heavy old amps, chaining them with mics, creating a massive, pushy, warm sound. No wonder that the first thing you notice when you walk towards the Magnet-Club small stage is three piles of amps, one by Orange, one by Sunn and one by Ampeg. The minimized drum set between them looks so innocent and harmless next to them. I was appear to be wrong.
boris/berlin, foto: os
Like every revolution turned out to be a republic, i was a bit suspicious. As a big fan of Boris earlier works and not that much and the latest ones, i didn't know what to expect. The popularity of the new-avant-metal pushed most of the artists into the borders of prog-rock, forgetting that we actually really like the minimal fuzz feedbacks they produced back then. Hey, don't we all really care about the volume? To the point when its so loud, that every touch of the guitar processed into long humm the will sustains until the rest of your life? And when it all combine together, it leaves you no option but just be there, surrounded by this cloud of noise, not thinking for a moment about it - just be inside.
Boris comes on stage, and the volume is set. First - some nice speed-metal track is played on the PA, while the smoke-machines making the stage really foggy. On this tour, how lucky we are, Boris joined Michio Kurihara, another fascinating guitarist from japan. Kurihara responsible for some great acts like Psych-Folk 80's White Heaven, and Later on the 90's Psych-Prog act Ghost (which collaborated Damon and Naomi for their great record in 1999). Boris collaborated with Kurihara two years ago. the result was the cross-decades Rainbow, a weird mixture of sunny fuzzy 70's guitars and cloudy 90's shoegaze bursts.
boris/berlin, foto: osIn fact, most of the show was based on this collaboration and the latest Boris release "Smile". Well, just by the name you can probably understand what was the atmosphere. Since the first time Atsou hit the drums, it was non-stopping riff vs solo massacre. It wasn't related to their bodywork anymore. these guys can do the best rock'n'roll you'll ever get - so powerful you can actually think that someone pushes you everytime a snare hit. The dynamics between the band was amazing, letting Wata do the speed-riffs, Kurihara in charge of the hendrix-styled solos, Takeshi on the vocals and the bass and the glamorous Atsou on the drums.
For moments it relaxed a bit, laid on the some melancholic e-bowed melody rising up again into another distorted storm of feedbacks and massive snares. You could never actually know what exactly is going to happen. Once your hear innocence Japanese melody, very simple and pure, than, all the sudden, it stops and another drum-guitars jam is starting without any notice. I never thought i will enjoy so much listen to 70's like rock out sessions.
Still, these guys can put so much energy into it you forget everything you know about avant-garde or experimentation with noise and free-form rock. You just want the pureness of this tight, well played, fast and heavy rock.
boris 1/foto: osBoris ends their act with a long heavy guitar drone with the same track close their latest album Smile (Southern Lord) (which in the recording featuring O'Malley on guitars), Atsou is getting up on his drum set and point his hands to the crowd as saying "we own you, worship our amps". They will come back to do "farewell" from Pink as an ancore and disappears, leaving me in a thick cloud of noise that will take me two days to recover from and getting my hearing back again.
"Boris knows and Boris likes it all It's like sin" Boris by the Melvins.
Boris (Southern Lord)/Growing (Kranky) - live in Berlin - May 2008.
boris/foto: southern
