Deafheaven performed for a small but satisfied crowd last night at the Granada

Deafheaven
The Granada, Lawrence
Tuesday, June 24

Resonance seemed to be the keyword at the Granada last night. Based on the last few metal shows I’ve attended, the genre seems to have taken a cue from the noise scene and incorporated body-attacking levels of volume into the mix. An apt example is the fact that Deafheaven didn’t have any pre-set music, unless you count a cyclical, droning hum that went on for five minutes. The band came out to this throbbing piece of work, and it only made the impending launch into the title track of Sunbather that much more satisfying.


Deafheaven is as symphonic as a band can get using the standard bass, guitar, and drums configuration. Sure, the two-guitar attack means you’ve one shredding riffs while the other lays out gorgeous melodic lines, but somehow, the five musicians on stage manage to create something akin to a danse macabre. Singer George Clarke conducts the audience imperiously, beckoning them in closer, then directing them to chaos and disorder, to which the crowd enthusiastically responded.

The illusion of closeness and all-consuming attention was frequently shattered by a crowd of drunken, noisy people at the bar who seemed oblivious to the musicians onstage. It was a shame, because during opener Wreck & Reference’s set, there was nothing but an eerie silence between songs. It may have had to do with the significant amount of tuning that went on between songs, overdubbed with the aforementioned drone, but given that it happened whenever the volume dropped at all, I doubt it.

That said, when Deafheaven returned to its wall of sound, nothing else was audible. It was a wash of instrumentation, pierced by Clarke’s shrieking rasp. The band’s been referred to as shoegazer metal, and it’s not unlike King Diamond fronting My Bloody Valentine, but it’s also more than that. The means by which the band can subtly speed things up and actually, legitimately rock out, while still maintaining the wash and wall is a sight and sound to behold. The quintet played its way through nearly all of Sunbather  – although some songs were truncated – making for a wholly satisfying performance.

“The last time we came through Lawrence, we played across the street at the Jackpot to about 12 people,” was how Pallbearer bassist Joseph Rowland introduced the band’s set. Suffice it to say, the band’s star has risen considerably since then. Their doom takes the stoner meets classic rock vibe of Kyuss and slows it down to half the speed, resulting in a ponderously melodic thunderstorm of riffs. Every song plays out at a pace that leaves you on tenterhooks, awaiting the coming release.

If Pallbearer’s 2012 Sorrow and Extinction is your cup of tea, live the band will destroy your mind. The second-to-last song of their set, the title track to their forthcoming LP, Foundations of Burden, brought the quartet to new heights. The vocals and guitar harmonics reminded me of Thin Lizzy, in a weird way, and I felt nigh-on obliterated by the set’s end, like I’d been in the slowest fist fight of my life.

Openers Wreck & Reference ably set the scene, playing thunderous doom that brought a storm of intensity onto the stage. Just a drummer and a singer with a sequencer, and the duo absolutely pummeled the audience with a wave of sound. Visually static, but sonically dynamic, it ebbed and flowed early on. However, by halfway into Wreck & Reference’s set, the sonic attack ceased any sense of abatement. Like an Argento score gone terribly awry, the two men on stage wove a web of giallo terror in which to envelop their audience.

While the crowd was small, barely a few rows above the Granada’s dance floor area, the crowd was (earlier drunks aside) 100% committed to every act. These were no bandwagonesque hipsters and looky-loos, but die-hards one and all, and there’s something to be said for loyalty.

Deafheaven setlist
Dream House
Irresistible
Sunbather
Please Remember
Vertigo
Windows
The Pecan Tree
Unrequited