As the cyclone hits! I got there just a few minutes before Killplot went on, the nick of time. I would have missed out if I didn't catch their set. They came out and on song one had my full attention. Their sound came at me full force like a door flying open when the hurricane hits. What are they like? Forceful, and unrelenting. Their drummer is just sick! At points, I was feeling like they had some programmed drum tracks in there with him or something. The drummer is pulling out all kinds of crazy tripped out time signatures. The songs are musically pretty complex. If you had to classify their sound, there are some elements that could put them in the same genre as Deftones mixed with Slipknot (they have one drummer, but he sounds like three). This band is to be filed under…MUST SEE!
Depswa
Next up was the perfect band for this line-up, Depswa. This band added some balance and dimension to the night, breaking up some more straight-forward in your face sounds with their smoothly rhythmic back hand smack to the head. I haven't seen them for a while and it seems like they are playing a lot of new songs. The only song in the set that I really remember was the first one, 'Faithless'. They are doing anything but your typical heavy sound. They laid down a hard-core vibe that was as thick as molasses with melodic tones and the sweetest darn vocals forced out by front man Jeremy Penick. The guys have been writing some intense and unique new material. Two songs that really caught my attention were "Voyeur" and "Charades". The sound here is sweeping and at times epic. I was missing some of the older stuff that lent itself toward amore tribal sound. I don't know if they still play those songs anymore. Maybe the flaw here is they don't have enough time in these short sets to play all their cool songs. I guess I can't complain, what they gave us was well worth it.
Agrokulcher came out and played about eight or nine songs. I have to admit I stopped paying attention once the music hit me and I was drowning in their tide. Jesse, Bill, and Gordon, who play guitar, bass, and drums are the powerhouse combination that create AK's whirlpool of sound. Bill's phat-ass bass tones smooth out Jesse's more chaotic guitar leads while Gordon comes in and pummels your soul. All three are excellent musicians! Matt's vocals are the force that reaches in and pulls you under the whirlpool. Agrokulcher is musically atmospheric in the same way Tool and NIN are, but the songs are less obscure, and more hard-core. The bass in Matt's vocals weighs them down and bring them to a slightly darker place. There's a feeling of weightlessness to their sound. The bass lines and drums give AK's songs a touch of groove, just enough to make it sexy. I was busy enjoying the band so I didn't catch all the songs in order, but these are the ones they played for sure: 'Song No. 5', 'Fade Away', 'God', 'Outer', 'Space', and 'Bleed for Me'.