I was born, raised, and currently live in Springfield, Massachusetts, a solid 90-minute drive away from the insanity, violence, and horror of the past week in Boston. The distance did not make the ordeal any less frightening, however, as I feared for the safety of my friends in the eastern part of the state upon hearing about the bombings at the Marathon and the manhunt a few days later. It was, needless to say, an exhausting week in Massachusetts.
The incident reached its dirty, bloody claws into the Silk City Tap Room in Florence, MA on April 19th. Their Friday night rock/metal/punk shows, normally featuring four bands, was on that date cut down to three as Allston, MA-based punk rockers Give Up were stuck in lockdown. However, amidst the news that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had been captured, the room combined two of the things that are best at bringing people together: the aftermath of horrific tragedy, and live local music. A formidable combination, indeed.
The Silk City Tap Room is a small bar located behind the Miss Florence Diner on Main Street in Florence, MA. Upstairs is a billiards room, but for obvious reasons most of the action took place downstairs, where the bar and the stage are located. The stage is but a small alcove in the wall, raised no more than a foot from the ground and with nothing resembling a barrier. If you like small, intimate, but loud shows, this is an ideal location.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that Brett Miller, guitarist of show openers Titanis, is my cousin, and that I am good friends with the other members of the band. Feel free to take anything I say about them with a grain of salt (or several), but I do believe their blend of Sabbathian stoner doom riffs and psychedelic atmospherics will please fans of Baroness, Electric Wizard, and Kylesa in the hopefully-near future. For what it’s worth, the crowd at Silk City seemed to agree with my biased opinion, although the below video – a song code-named ‘Isis’ (guess which band inspired the song) segueing into a Melvins cover – doesn’t include their reaction.
These were the second and third songs of the set. Titanis opened with ‘Hyperion,’ a 13-minute doom metal monster in multiple parts, beginning in fast-paced Kylesa mode before going into the Sleep riffs. After the new song and the ‘Night Goat’ cover, they followed up with ‘Europa,’ a somber, atmospheric instrumental piece that bears a noticeably post-rock influence. ‘Europa’ was originally intended to be the closer, but due to Give Up’s absence from the show, their set was extended with instrumental covers of ‘Electric Funeral’ and ‘Iron Man’ and the improvised folkier jam ‘The Roots.’
Following them up were The Scimitar, a new project featuring guitarist Darryl Shephard and bassist Gein of Black Pyramid (the latter also plays in Second Grave) and drummer Brian Banfield of Blood Stone Sacrifice. Those who are familiar with Black Pyramid’s brand of crushingly heavy stoner doom will immediately notice the similarities between the two bands (the band is named after the song ‘Swing the Scimitar’ from Black Pyramid’s new album Adversarial), although The Scimitar has a bit more of a Motorhead kick.
And while the best song they played may have been the Black Pyramid cover at the end (performing, of course, ‘Swing the Scimitar’), that should not be taken as a sign of weakness in The Scimitar’s own material, as forthcoming recorded material will prove. Set opener ‘Void Traveler’ is a proggy, psychedelic number that sounds heavily influenced by Elder (one of the more popular Massachusetts local doom metal acts, and friends of Black Pyramid/The Scimitar). Following up was ‘Babylon,’ a faster-paced instrumental featuring some of Gein’s best bass playing, which transitioned into ‘The Taker,’ the doomiest song in their set. A brand new song entitled ‘World Unreal’ followed that, ending with a cover of Motorhead’s ‘Metropolis’ and the afore-mentioned ‘Swing the Scimitar.’
Birch Hill Dam’s performance that night was my first experience with them, and I walked away with two important pieces of knowledge: one, that the band really, really likes ginger ale (based on the working titles of two new songs), and two, that their brand of fast-paced southern-fried stoner metal is very, very fun live. I initially didn’t recognize their set opener as a Skid Row cover (I saw ‘Slave to the Grind’ written on the setlist and did a double-take), but the following originals ‘Gasoline Fiend,’ ‘Seeding,’ and a new song code-named ‘Schwepps’ had me banging my head. They followed with the cowbell-filled ‘Colossus’ and the extremely catchy ‘Fathoms Below,’ perhaps my favorite two songs in the set. Another new song (‘Canada Dry’) was followed with a cover of ‘Children of the Grave’ (“keeping with the theme of the evening” in their words, referencing the two Sabbath covers in Titanis’ set), and the set was rounded off with ‘Boozehound,’ a cover of Twisted Sister’s ‘Burn in Hell,’ and ‘Bed of Nails,’ the opening track from their first, self-titled album.
Also present that night was Wicked Music, a New Hampshire-based music distributor specializing in heavy metal and punk headed by Antoine Veach. He has been present at every Silk City show I have attended and has drained my wallet each time – not that you’ll hear me complaining. He happened to have two of my favorite albums in stock that night and I simply couldn’t resist:
It was a fitting end to a stressful, fear-filled week. The manhunt for a murderous terrorist is brought to its satisfying conclusion, and the calls for celebration are met with killer (too soon?) guitar riffs. We learn what it means to be united, and witness the fruits of such unity. I can think of nothing more beautiful.
