Solstice Celebration, with Beercraft and Orb of Confusion
The actual Winter Solstice occurred a few minutes after midnight on the 21st, so now the light can come trickling back in for six months until the Summer Solstice puts an end to such foolishness and takes it away again. There are countless ways to celebrate these annual milestones, and people have been celebrating them pretty much since there have been people.
On this particular solstice, I went with my friend Justin to celebrate it by experiencing metal in Berkeley. Justin had briefly explained to me about Beercraft. Their guitarist is also in Ludicra, another local band, but Beercraft is more "folky" and singleminded in their approach, mixing Finntroll-ish rhythms with lyrics about beer. The thought of their actually being a local folk-metal band decided me. I had to go check this out.
We drove northwards in the rain, and found that the venue was a house near the Ashby BART station. There was no cover charge, which is welcome any time, but especially welcome during the holiday season. The really interesting thing though, was that the bands were to play inside a dome in the backyard. As far as domes go, this one was a real D.I.Y. affair. The metal frame was covered by a motley assortment of canvas materials that, after closer inspection, revealed themselves to be old billboards. I spotted the "It's the cheese" billboard and a Lord of the Rings advertisement, which struck me as funny - there we were, a ragged assortment of metalheads, pirate punx, and other random partygoers, huddled underneath hobbits and cows. It was somehow fitting. The fact that ivy vines had punched through the "roof" in a couple of places added to the atmosphere too. The clutter pushed up against the sides of the space indicated that the dome served as an ad hoc garage when not used for the purpose of sheltering metal bands.
As for the bands, Orb of Confusion played first. I had heard a few snippets on their myspace page (of course) beforehand, but what I'd heard there hadn't left much of an impression. Some bands just need to be seen live, I guess (or heard someplace besides myspace). They consisted of two guitarists, a female bassist (it was great that both bands sported female members, as this is still more an exception than a rule in this particular genre), and a drummer. Everybody sang. They laid down thick slabs of groove-laden, Sabbath-influenced metal, with vocals that gravitated more towards screaming and shouting than Ozzy-like singing. A reference point might be Post Mortem, who had a similar approach (but who themselves are horribly obscure these days, so never mind...). They really benefitted from having gender differentiated vocals too, ala Nausea. I couldn't catch much in the way of lyrical content, but it sounded like they didn't stray far from typical metal content matter.
After a short break, Beercraft came on. There were keyboards this time, and their guitarist sported and drinking horn in a belt holster (nice touch, especially given the name of the band). Again, everybody sang. The songs were definitely in the Finntroll vein, with lots of polka rhythms and keyboards. The lyrics were exclusively about beer and other mind altering substances (for all I know, the same could apply to Finntroll, but I don't understand Finnish). Somewere in the mix was a Black Flag cover, and their set ended with a rousing rendition of "What do we do with a drunken sailor," with audience members making up new verses on the fly. I must say I couldn't really relate to the lyrics, since I was probably the only non beer-drinking audience member, but talking with the keyboardist afterwards, I was almost sold by her eloquent extolling of the virtues of the gourmet beer she was drinking. Almost.
It's good to have local bands like this. I'm pretty out of touch with the current local metal scene these days, but now I'm thinking I should check in more often.
