Six Feet Under / Sworn Enemy / Skinless / Origin
The Bottleneck, Lawrence, KS
June 13, 2002
Review by Jerome
Hanging around by The Bottleneck...shows running late.
Origin are opening and they're just gradually making their way into the venue. Today was the release party for their new CD. Sit around,
Skinless and Sworn Enemy are milling around, and for some reason the bass player of
Sworn Enemy was just getting a kick out of being in KS...he was calling everyone in NY. HOLY SHIT I'M IN KANSAS. Sounded like a serious case of dementia, can I get a medic please? Believe me, it happens, sometimes I wake up screaming at night b/c I realize I am waking up in KS. heh.
Skipping the nonsensical stuff, doors open late b/c Origin got there late to do their soundcheck stuffs. Grabbed a table to wait wait wait. Jade and Tommy showed up around then...Tommy headed for the beer and I humped Jade's leg. Ok, not really, she humped mine...KIDDING. *ahem*
OK, the floor on The Bottleneck got fixed after a pig's head from Dark Funeral got smashed through it back at the end of April. [Click here for the gory details - ed]. There's some brand new wood there now. Shiny too.
I'm not the biggest Origin fan, I came to see Skinless, thus I can't tell you what they opened with. CD release party for their new CD, which came out Tuesday. All I can tell you, is that it was the furious blast-beat, twin-guitar, triple-vox attack that is Origin, with Mike's bass rumbling right along. It's definitely something that catches your attention. HOWEVER, the one failing I've always noticed with Origin, is sheer overkill. As you are sitting there watching, opening riffs on a song come out damn clear, but then once their songs get going it's just a wall of sound...where you kind of lose the ability to differentiate their songs unless you are a die-hard fan. To me, this kind of hurts their set, b/c you can't really walk away from it having a certain hook, you just know that you ass got pounded. Quick tribute to Chuck of Death (RIP), and they covered a song, but I couldn't tell which one b/c I couldn't differentiate as per above reference. Lots of buzz and hum in between breaks...and when the guitars played parts all by their lonesome it sounded kind of choppy until everyone else came in. Bottom line is Origin's got the chops to hang with anyone, Paul and Jeremy just need to turn it down and focus on cleaning up the guitar sound, and I think Origin would be much better live.
Ok, so next was some good ol' NY style Hardcore courtesy of Sworn Enemy. At first I thought, they would just come off sounded like your typical NY hardcore, but they got the crowd flailing and stomping around, and kind of slowly started to break out and have their own sound, then would dive right back into NY style...doh! But I guess if it works, then don't try to change it? Lot of energy, bass player was busting out mad spinning crescent kicks, vox weren't too bad, you know how the guitars sound, I said NY hardcore-style remember? I saw Jason get flipped by a guy, that was damn cool, but he was ok. I was pretty wore out, so Jade and I just kicked back and watched them go...
OH HELL, who am I kidding? Like I am one to resist getting the bollocks kicked out of me. A pitting I went, and tried my hand at flailing around and all that nonsense. Good stuff, I was disappointed that I didn't get to break in my flying-windmill crane kick. Maybe another time. Had a song as a tribute to 'September 11th' called 'September 11th' hmmm. Then they had a song called ummmm I.D.A. ? Or at least I think that's what it was...at first I thought he said IGA, but I don't even know if they have those in NY. So I got down there and was screaming into the mic just like everyone else. I have wicked pipes. So wicked in fact I shouldn't scream or growl. ever. Then they snuck in a bit of "Domination" by Pantera, little bit of mayhem, and they're done.
Next was Skinless, the reason why I was there...Opened with 'Foreshadowing our Demise' and wasted no time destroying the place. Funny thing was, someone earlier was talking about how Origin was just going to blow Skinless off the stage...umm no. Here's where that sound definition comes into play...While Noah and Joe weren't cranked up to hell, the sound came across clear, clean, distinct, and heavy as fuck. You could follow what was going on instead of just one big wall of blast-beat sound. And fuck Sherwood's got the growl, damn wicked vox, hella energy and stage presence, he was everywhere.. Their new drummer, George Torres just kills. Made my way up front to be crushed by the folk behind me, but I got some damn good pictures(I hope) and nothing is better than being right up front and banging away with Sherwood...good stuff. Personal favorites would have to be "Smothered" "Tug of War Intestines" and "Enslavement" also played two of their new tracks "Miscreant" and "Deathwork" which both fucking kill. Oh, and how could I forget "Pool of Stool?" hahaha. Kind of short set, but it was straight to the point...no bullshit, just a severe ass-kicking. After that, you could have honestly left the show and been content. I'd have to say Skinless definitely stole the show.
So next was Six Feet Under, they just kind of got onstage and started throwing down. Once again, I'm not a big Six Feet Under fan, so I apologize for my lack of knowledge, and such. Uhh I know they played 'Enemy Inside'. Started with stuff off their new album, basically regressed back down the Six Feet Under discography. Barnes commented that this was being recorded for their live CD, then proceeded to mess up on one song, and the drummer slipped up on another. The whole time, Barnes is growling out his deep vox, and screams, which were too high and caused the mic to feed back...gotta work on that EQ, and not smoke up so much...He seriously had that dumb I'm so high smile the whole time, whenever he wasn't thrashing out. (sidenote: Sherwood's Vox sounded so much better, I was disappointed b/c I've always heard so much about Barnes vox) The rest of the band was real low key on presence, I felt like they were concentrating more on making sure it sounded good for the recording, rather than interacting with the crowd. The drummer, other than a small mistake sounded damn good. Unfortunately, I quickly lost my interest, while they did get pretty good pits going, I sat back and watched...the mayhem seemed rather low-key not like Skinless or Sworn Enemy's set. Then it just ended suddenly...no encore...it just ended.
Damn good show, I'm glad I bailed to check it out.
About that time, I headed over to look at Skinless stuff, talked to Sherwood, got some stuff signed, and got the new EP for new stuff coming out on the next CD. So far it hasn't been released anywhere else, so if you go, grab it, only $6. It has "Miscreant", "Deathwork", and some footage and other tidbits.
Said my good-byes and back to Wichita. Got home at 4am. Died, woke up and went to work. etc etc etc ok I've typed way to much.
Again. time for sleep!
