Gifts from Enola - Tone - Solar Powered Sun Destroyer -- Iota - Aug 26 2010

Solar Powered Sun Destroyer - I've seen this band a couple times before and they are always a great addition to any bill. They live up to their name by bringing heavy spacey psychedelic rock in buckets of volume with three guitars a bass, drums, some synth samples and vocals. The bass player plays drums for the mighty Caverns. Very heavy and easy to absorb. I kind of wish they could figure out better vocal lines at times, but a few of the songs really work. The closer was a monster that leaves me with a sweet taste in my mouth.

Tone - Wow. What a tidal wave of sound this was! Three guitars, bass and drums doing all instrumentals with the dynamics of Mono and the power of Mogwai. Toss in other instrumental and near instrumental powerhouses like Kinski and Kohoutek and hopefully that will get you some idea of how good this band is. I loved the pounding drums which anchored the stringed instruments who were able to move around from psyche to moodier shoegaze to rock and metal with nice transitions. Tight, strong and they are from around here. Rolling Stone listed this band as one of their top 100 choices at last years South by Southwest Festival. If that is the case, I need to check out the other 99 bands.

Gifts from Enola - This Virgina band is just finishing up a massive tour of mostly smaller clubs across the country, paying a lot of dues and hopefully making a lot of fans. It is another sonic assault with only two guitars this time and some vocals. They went more in the direction of Boris than Mono, meaning they were a bit more song oriented and metal edged. They were not quite up to the mighty Boris, but that is ok. They were powerful and shifted around nicely in the song. Unfortunately, the show started a tad late and the changes were tough and a bit slow, so I had to leave early to make sure I made metro and get some sleep before my trip to see the Stooges tomorrow. But I stayed long enough to see that this band is right there with the previous two as somebody I would love to see again. Great show tonight.

Plug of the Night: Pardon the pun, but I do want take this opportunity to pretend I am Paul Harvey and tell you about an excellent product I have discovered and now make it a part of my concert experience. Maybe since the recent death of Black Motorcycle Club's soundman (see previous writeup eariler this year), I might try to see that band again. But like Dinosaur Jr. and others, I would never do it without earplugs. I have tried homemade jobs and simple disposables, but the good folks from Earpeace have sent me some really nice carefully designed reusable earplugs. Please check out their site and give these a try. I have used them a couple of times and after the initial lessening of the overall sound, you can clearly hear all of the instruments and range of sounds coming through, allowing you the full experience. Tell them I sent you and they will say "who sent you?"

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