Though they’re hardly a household name around here, I’d hafta say Ufomammut drew a pretty decent crowd to the Mod Club last night. Personally, I had been looking forward to seeing them for quite some time, and they really did deliver–visually as well as musically. In fact, it isn’t very often, maybe only once or twice a year, that you see a solid quadruple bill of heavy rock/doom bands where all the pieces fit together as they did on this evening.
Although I didn’t take any pictures of their set, I did show up in time to see Olde, a relatively new local outfit with some guys who’ve been around the block. Their heavy bottom end sorta sounded like OTIS–and it’s no wonder, since their drummer pulled double duty in both local openers. I’d go and see ’em again if they were on another bill around town.
Touring support act Usnea was reduced to third billing this evening–seeing as they’ve only got one album under their belts, there were surely more people out to see OTIS. This Portland quartet was the most extreme act on the bill, from a metallic sense, mixing elements of black and death metal into some drawn-out sludge/doom tunes. I didn’t even bother to review their record when it came out (the “funeral doom” label tends to turn me off), but seeing ’em live, I could dig most of it.
Hadn’t seen OTIS live in about a year–last time was opening for Down at the Danforth Music Hall. A lot of their set was newer stuff that wasn’t even on their last record, but they still started off with their fuzzed-out take on Skynyrd’s “Cry For the Bad Man” and took some time to jam a little, setting the stage for Ufomammut afterwards.
Ufomammut had the strangest set list I’ve ever seen–a carefully aligned chart of symbols and code words. It was almost as if they were mapping out the movements of their epic tracks. And, as to be expected from a band that also owns an art studio, there was a pretty impressive visual backdrop behind them–think Neurosis when they had Josh Graham in their camp. Rather than just coming back from an encore, they effectively played two sets, ending around 1:30 in the morning. But frankly, I hadn’t even realized it was so late. I guess time flies when you’re getting your mind blown by heavy riffs…
