There are many things I like about The Lexington. Decorated like a hunting lodge and roadhouse bar, it always delivers great sound, good views looking up at the raised stage, and a nice range of drinks. And I always especially enjoy walking up the stairs to the venue, ogling the poster trail of acts who’ve made it massive – Wet Leg, Charli xcx anyone? – since playing there a few years ago. It reminds you that you might be about to watch just such a show.
It’s unlikely that the duo of three-piece metal bands playing tonight will make it to quite those leagues of pop mega-stardom. But The Grey and Psychonaut are both phenomenal, in the studio and on the stage. And tonight’s intimate show at the Lex – sold out, packed in wall-to-wall, rowdy, excited – affirms the fact that they deserve star status, at least in the somewhat niche world of progressive post-metal.
The Grey, based in Cambridge, are well known on the UK scene for the memorable and powerful quality of their instrumental music, and especially for the intensity of their live shows. Guitarist Charlie rocks his wah-wah pedal back and forth in time with the intro track with a bare foot, the dramatic, rousing atmospheres being piped through the PA providing time for the musicians to get into The Zone.
And The Zone for The Grey is very much one of catharsis. If you’ve seen them before then you’ll know that bass-player Andy always makes a short speech at one stage, dedicating the song to everyone who is struggling or anyone who has to watch others struggle, welcoming the audience to allow some – but not all – of those feelings in now, within the special space of the live show. And, once you’ve heard him say this once, it becomes a frame for the whole experience of watching them play every song; it’s what I think about every time before they come on stage, and what I think about every time I listen to them at home. I don’t need Andy to say it to feel it, but it never diminishes the impact when he does.
The Grey’s compositions are progressive in that they tell nuanced musical narratives, which aren’t afraid to take as many minutes as they need to be effective. The band use the term soundscapes, and that is certainly best fitting. Their compositions pass through specific moods and particular atmospheres; they use their instruments to articulate the nuanced feelings that words may struggle to do.
What reoccurs with wonderful regularity is groove – big, roiling, dense grooves referencing the annals of stoner rock and doom. But not delivered with quite the medicated optimism of the former, or the morbid pessimism of the latter: riffs with a feel of their own.
And the riffs pour over us in waves – Tool pull-offs here, Karma to Burn boogie (RIP) there – as Andy holds his bass to the ceiling, surveying the crowd, wanting to register the emotions, he is clearly feeling in the eyes of their audience. Charlie deftly flicks pedal settings between hammered-on, drop-tuned riffs; and drummer Steve plays hard yet with precision and deliberation.
Now Andy’s right up at the front, shouting wordless emotions right back at us. “It’s our last song,” he says, “but we don’t really do short ones.” We get vocals from him this time, now properly hearing the pain he’s emitting: full-throated roaring, bass discarded now, with a wash of raw guitar power surging over us.
Eventually, too soon, the amp’s switched off and we’re allowed a pause before the PA playlist picks up again. The Grey are this good every single time. I know of no other instrumental metal who can make this much emotional impact; maybe no other metal band, full stop.
Psychonaut know something about impact too. Their third album World Maker, released a few days ago, has clearly made an impact on the audience here, who go nuts when frontman Stefan introduces a song from it. Introducing it as a “personal, vulnerable album” making me think back to Andy’s speech an hour earlier: you don’t write this music in a vacuum.
Between the three of them, Psychonaut rely on relatively little to create a huge, heavy, and powerful sound. Stefan and bass-player Thomas sing intertwined dual vocal harmonies – clear, soaring, sustained – and issue power growls, keeping at least one root in the soil of extreme metal. And there are so many groove-laden post-metal riffs, here, making The Grey Psychonaut’s perfect support act. Stefan brings a psychedelic flavour to many guitar licks; then there’s his progressive skill in crafting intricate, unpredictable songs; and a mixture of technical precision and passion in every tapping solo that renders them magical rather than self-indulgent. Switching between three guitars for almost every song, the range of tones that Stefan teases from his Les Paul, his Reverend, and an unidentified white beauty build layers upon Thomas’s lithe, active basslines.
Surely ‘You Are The Sky’ is a big song for many of us, coming on like a more jagged version of latter-day Enslaved; we all feel that huge, distorted bassline when it drops; all respond with awe to the neat delayed-tapping extravaganza that Stefan drops in so casually.
With the entire crowd absolutely locked onto Psychonaut tonight, the band thank us many times over – the big grins spread on their faces mirroring our own. It’s their first headlining club show in the UK, having built up a following over here from playing festivals and support slots, and tonight’s show guarantees it will not be their last – they’re back at ArcTangent next summer at the very least.
Godamn! What a show. Like many of us here, I feel lucky to have caught this smaller club show from Psychonaut, hoping that this will help to catapult them to even greater heights – and that tonight’s poster remains on the Lexington walls, marking the arc of that trajectory.
