Donovan Melero, Hail the Sun headline strong midweek showcase at The Bottleneck

March 19, 2024

Andrew Dodderidge,

Hail the Sun. // photo by Andrew Dodderidge

Hail the Sun
with Intervals, Makari and Body Thief
The Bottleneck
Tuesday, March 12

The Bottleneck has always been a top-tier venue to me, not only in the Lawrence area, but stretching out all the way to equal everything Kansas City has to offer.

Arcade games in the back have paid the price for a four-band lineup to spread their merch on a Tuesday night (maybe they were taken out a while ago, I don’t know). Still have that darn pool table smack-dab in the middle, though.

I took a look at all the plaques of the big bands that have hit up the smallish bar over the years this time around, which include Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Slipknot and Wilco, among others. Attending a show with a non-concert-regular, it’s a good way to get them excited for what’s to come if they’re at all disappointed with the size of the venue itself.

Even the bathrooms have been upgraded from the time I was hitting this place up routinely in high school and college, with an increase in size and a vast number of advertisements for upcoming shows, not only for them, but also for Lawrence’s esteemed venue The Granada.

And it’s not often you get three high-quality post-hardcore/prog rock bands (and whatever you would classify Intervals as) that fit in perfectly with the vibe that has been well established since 1985.

Makari. // photo by Andrew Dodderidge

Openers Body Thief and Makari got everything started at a rather brisk pace, with both bands clocking very short set times and exiting the stage for the final two acts right at 8 p.m. For a Tuesday, this was both a breath of fresh air, and certainly a relief.

The energy the night needed was well established from the get-go from each bands’ respective vocalists, Daniel Hawkins (Body Thief) and Andy Cizek (Makari). Their passion shined through everything and their showmanship kept the night young while everyone was waiting for the double-bill to begin. Makari’s recently released Wave Machine made up four of their seven cuts and is certainly worth a check.

Intervals. // photo by Andrew Dodderidge

Instrumental prog metal/djent band Intervals came on at around 8:15, and the group’s only current member (there is a touring gang), frontman/guitarist Aaron Marshall, was having the time of his life, consistently ending each cut with a gentle and groovy “Fuck yeah.”

The theme of the night was thankfulness, which Marshall continued by commenting on the graciousness of the large crowd for coming out on a Tuesday night as the set approached the hour mark, saying the night was “It Feels Good.jpeg” before “Leave No Stone”, off 2017’s The Way Forward. They even introduced an unreleased track titled “Nootropic,” which they had only supposedly played four times before.

Hail the Sun. // photo by Andrew Dodderidge

But more than anything worth mentioning about last Tuesday is Allen Casillas. Hail the Sun’s drummer since 2016 (taking over for vocalist Donovan Melero, who commanded the kit for the group’s first two studio efforts) was a sight to behold. I wish I could have done it justice with the proper photos, but it’s always so hard to represent drummers as a photographer (if you know, you know).

The man was fully locked in and obviously feeds off the style of music, a lot more so than other drummers in the genre. Melero, sporting a fancy Saint Laurent t-shirt, did get behind the kit in the middle of the set for a few tracks off 2012 EP Elephantitis, likely a nightly occasion.

With no new material between this tour and their last (aside from the very new single “Secondary Worship”), the band dropped nearly two-thirds of their normal 17-track set list from 2023, largely in favor of older EP material and some deeper cuts from ‘23 release Divine Inner Tension, which is arguably the group’s best effort yet.

Divine certainly gave the post-hardcorers a boost in appeal and helped garner them more followers, but as I took a deep dive through their catalog to prep for the show, there really didn’t seem anything heavily apparent to surpass their sixth release, and fourth with Equal Vision.

There is a blatant attempt at more experimentation on Divine, whether it’s some danceable sections on “Mind Rider”, the extreme nature of “Tithe”, the pop-sensations on “60-Minute Session Blocks” or the resigned and relief-driven “Maladapted”.

All of these made-up the Divine-heavy hour, one where Melero prefaced many tracks with a short synopsis:

“60-Minute Session Blocks” – an hour-long therapy session
“Tithe” – the Catholic church
“Human Target Practice” – police brutality

I’m not here to take a stance on the track, but “Human” has a thoughtful and controversial approach, and therefore succeeds, especially as the closer for the night. Lawrence shows always deliver.

All photos by Andrew Dodderidge

Hail the Sun