Night Rituals: Recent Episodes
Night Rituals
Live recordings of shows. Recorded from the crowd on a professional audio device. There are imperfections, crowd noise, etc. This is just a document of a moment in time.
Sinmara played St Vitus with Suffering Hour, Wormwitch, and Uada. SInmara was the highlight of BY FAR. Absolutely crushing performance and the audio turned out great on this one.
Luminous Vault opened the Vanum show (previous post). This band's recorded material has never resonated with me but this live set won me over. Perfectly executed industrial death metal. Shades of Godflesh with more intricate guitar work. I think this recording is a better representation of this band than their current ep.
This was the Vanum record release show for Ageless Fire. Bog Body and Luminous Vault also played. Vanum really did justice to their recorded output here. Fierce and Triumphant!
This was part of a full day of Thou and Emma Ruth Rundle. Earlier in the day they played a collaborative set at Saint Vitus bar, debuting all new material. Later that night, both artists performed separate sets at Brooklyn Bazaar. This recording is from Thou's set at Brooklyn Bazaar which was comprised of their quieter material from Inconsolable and Rhea Sylvia. Members of MJ Glider joined them on stage to add vocals. The whole thing was a moving experience.
Daughters own. They played St. Vitus a few months earlier and my recording didn't start for some reason. Right now, they are one of the best live bands going. This time the line up was switched up a bit with a new bass player and 2nd guitarist. The show was packed, by far the largest attendance I've ever seen for this band. And you can hear it here, there is quite a bit of crowd noise but also quite a bit of energy with people singing along. Lex has a few new moves, namely slamming the microphone against his forehead so that he is sporting a nice little bloody dot on his face throughout the show. The room at Warsaw always sounds a little muffled but this is still a fairly listenable recording.
Somehow with just bass and drums Sissy Spacek bulldozed Saint Vitus in a controlled, massive, grinding explosion. These guys have been doing it forever - exploring every aspect of extreme sonic experimentation from noise to power violence to the grind behemoth that they are today. Seeing John Weise play bass is an experience unto itself and the drums were handled with intense discipline as well. Enjoy.
It's a pretty rare opportunity to see Sargeist or really any underground bands from Finland. Wayfarer opened this show (I've uploaded the audio for that in an earlier episode). I felt like Wayfarer gave the better performance of the two bands but Sargeist still gave a solid performance with the highlight being "Let the Devil In."
National Sawdust is an interesting room. It's wider than it is long and feels very "designed" and futuristic as a space. I assumed a lot of the strange paneling was to create acoustics but the sound wasn't particularly amazing or out of the ordinary. Dalek opened but unfortunately I forgot to record it. Sumac's was a an absolute triumph of a performance. I felt like there were sections of the songs that were set up for improvisation before returning to huge riffs that glued the compositions together. It's amazing seeing musicians that I have been following through their careers reach such an incredible level of artistic mastery. Enjoy.
This isn't the best sounding recording but honestly, listen to it. If you are a fan of either of this bands, this was pretty much everything you would want from a live performance. The Market Hotel has a large window in the area behind the stage so as the chaos was unfolding you could see the above ground train going by in the background. This was pretty much what every director wishes that club scene in their movie was like. There is a fair amount of crowd noise but the atmosphere was like a party and I think that only adds to the recording.
You must know Efrim from his band Godspeed You Black Emperor!. His solo performance was the near opposite experience of seeing Godspeed. Rather than huge, epic sound waves and cinematic projections, this was a meditative, intimate, and subtle experience. The thing that is consistent between both entities is the pure emotional power of the music. This was just Efrim on vocals and a collaborator (I am not sure who) creating all sorts of noise and shifting moods through various pedals and equipment.
Usnea was one of the first sets of the festival. The room was full but not packed and the band played on the floor. Despite the sun being out and being completely bathed in light through the windows, the band managed to really capture the atmosphere in the room. The recording on this one is a little murky but I think it adds to the atmosphere.
This was rad. Yokuburi appeared in a sort of balcony-like area above our heads. Just one guy playing drums that were wired up to triggers that played samples along with his drumming. The effect was pretty great and really fun to watch. His set transitioned straight into Lightning Bolt as they both played together for the first few minutes of their set. Lightning Bolt were just as unhinged as any other time I have seen them. There aren't many bands that are more consistently fun than them. The recording does a pretty good job capturing what a circus the whole thing was.
This was a really intense performance by Prurient. I have seen him a few times in the past and it was always just a guy sitting at a table, twisting some knobs and pushing some buttons. This time it was a true performance. The music was raw and played with an emotional immediacy that betrays it's electronic origins. Dominick's stage presence was violent and unpredictable as he thrashed between abusing his equipment and screaming into the abyss. The recording doesn't really capture that intensity but it's still provides a good listen.
The first performance of the day on Saturday. The sun was still coming in the windows. You would never guess that this group consists of only two members. Between the two of them they played drums, pedals, bass, lap steel - the sound is huge but also dynamic and atmospheric. The recording on this one turned out great.
The headlining event at Basilica Soundscape 2018 was this collaborative performance between Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Haxan Cloak (collaborator with Bjork, The Body, HEALTH, Atticus Ross, etc). The result was a 45 minute sci-fi soundtrack-like dronescape. You can hear how much audience noise there is at the beginning and how everyone is silent after the first break. That's how good it was. Hopefully this captures a little of the magic of the actual experience.
I hadn't heard this band before but they completely blew me away. They share one member with the incredible Blood Incantation but Wayfarer play epic black metal instead of the death metal of BI. Sargeist also played and that set will be in a separate episode.
If you haven't heard or seen Lingua Ignota yet, do yourself a big favor and change that. At this show she performed on the floor rather than on the stage. The lights in the club were off and the only lighting was an industrial clip-on light she had placed on her equipment. During the noise portion of the set she walked around, holding the light by it's cord while whipping her back with it. The effect was disorienting and affecting. Very intense performance. The full line-up included Big Brave and The Body. I'll have the Big Brave set posted at some point but The Body was too loud and the recording is just a blown out mess (they were great though). Enjoy.
This is the first concert I recorded. Lesser Glow played as well which will be uploaded as a separate episode. Enjoy!
This is a recording of Amenra playing live at Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn, NY on July 03, 2018.