Om/Six Organs of Admittance/Lichens - DC9 - Oct 15 2009

Lichens - This was one man looping his chants, some through distortion boxes and creating a meditative droning ambiance, complete with bird noises. It was a nice sound and the crowd enjoyed it and it was a perfect starting point for tonight's interesting bands. One thing, I don't know if this name is correct as it doesn't match what I see on Myspace.

Six Organs of Admittance - I admit to being a big fan of this Ben Chasny effort which is basically him on guitar and vocals doing solo material or collaborating with others. Chasny plays excellent acoustic guitar and is quite versatile covering Eastern modal patterns as well as other fingerpicking acoustic styles. He sang more times than not and it was somewhat an extension of the first act in style. He was also joined by a second guitarist on song four for the remainder of the set. I found it easy to be involved in his music which is the way I feel about his records as well. An excellent second act to tonight's play with an appreciative and very large audience filing in.

Om - Om was formed when a metal band split up and the two members of the rhythm section created this experimental psyche minimalist concept. They have two albums out and they are successful in creating their own brand of psyche-drone power. The drummer, who had changed between albums, was quite creative with his cymbal usage. The bassist was solid and they had a third guy sometimes help with extra sounds which is fairly important as minimalism can only take you so far. I believe it was the guy in the opening set, but the club was jammed and the stage was dark and sightlines are not good at the DC9 (hence the tvs they install so people in the back can at least see something). Anyway, there were some major fans and the set went over well. To be honest, I thought it lacked something that I can't quite finger. It was just missing some sort of spark that would put me more in their world. The songs were good, but personally, I find listening to the albums the better choice for their sound. Maybe it was the one guy who yelled more than once to "turn it up" and "louder". Normally, I would roll my eyes, but he may have been right this time. I think this music needs to rattle your bones a bit more.

Quote of the Night: From the guys talking movies behind me-- "I can live with a Tron sequel". Yeah, me too. There's lots of movies I live with that don't live with me.