Live Music Review //
Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop Chop
Pain Chain / Detcord Noose
Chuck Steak / L'Eclipse Nue / Burning Books
July 14th, 2023
at Brown Jug Liquor, Meriden CT
Additional photos can be found on Facebook here :::
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=raisedbycassettes&set=a.1285038595559692
This was one of those shows that I was really looking forward to going into it because of the lineup. Yes, Brown Jug Liquor is close to me but I would've traveled a lot more miles to see these artists if I had to. The combination of locals plus out of state artists just made this feel like such a special show because you should go out of your way to see all of these artists when they play shows so to have them all playing on the same show really put this up there as one of my favorite shows this year.
Burning Books opened up this show and though Quentin and I have both seen Burning Books before, it was not quite like this. For the Willimantic Records show it felt more like a droning and the sound was just closer to the classical side of things. But on this night, Burning Books was less of that classical feel and through the various methods of manipulating the strings, the sound coming out very much felt like it was bordering on harsh noise.
It was really great to see not just that string instruments can play these different sounds, but also that different sounds can come from different places as Burning Books fit in on this bill but also was the only one playing a classical-type instrument. The way that artists can adapt and change up their sound based upon who they're playing with/where they're playing is just so amazing to me because you don't see it a lot but hearing this harsher, louder side of Burning Books, complete with a microphone wrapped around the neck, was an experience I am grateful for being a part of.
Up next was L'Eclipse Nue who we last saw on what we thought would be a chill night but turned out to be rather loud. To me, music is about how it makes you feel more than the technical aspects of it. L'Eclipse Nue has this way about playing noise in an electronic sense, which feels like an entirely different genre from this show, but then all of a sudden out of nowhere you hear this wave of distortion just blast over everything and it becomes more like harsh noise. There are certainly industrial aspects to this sound as well.
It started with one leg, but L'Eclipse Nue eventually was completely up on the noise table and there was this element of suspense added into the sound which made for a visual show as well as the audio. At times, it felt like the table might collapse as it leaned to one side or just shook. Adding that suspense to the music itself just made everything feel more intense. You could've enjoyed this set with your eyes closed but having them open and being really tuned in just made this one of the best live performances I have ever seen.
At the midpoint of the show we found Chuck Steak. This set was as gripping musically as it was visually. Before the music really seemed to go into full effect, Chuck Steak walked around to each side of the table and pushed a button. At the end of the set, this pattern repeated. I'm not sure if the reason behind this has ever been explained, but I feel as if it was like opening this musical portal to bring in the sound at the start and then closing that portal to take the music to the next destination.
With a face obscured, the overall appearance of Chuck Steak reminded me of a character from a horror film. Sam from "Trick 'r Treat" came to mind, but I know there are others and it just made me feel like what we were witnessing was akin to a horror movie. There were times when the sound was harsh noise and times when it was blast beats. Mostly instrumental, there were times when Chuck Steak would scream or growl, leaning more towards the grindcore/powerviolence sound.
As someone who has possibly seen too much in their lifetime- even more so this past year- I say with the utmost respect because it would have fit in so well artistically that I thought at one point during the set Chuck Steak would definitely pull out a gun and fire it into the air. It just felt like it would've fit the overall vibe, but for legal purposes was likely left more to my imagination than actually being done. Still, this set was intense and I cannot recommend people going to witness Chuck Steak in person enough.
Detcord Noose started the second half. This was my second time seeing them and they have played a few shows in between their first and now. I was actually interested to see how Quentin would react to Detcord Noose because he's seen bands but he's never really seen a band this heavy before, he's never come this close to metal in person before. But he didn't cover his ears during the entire show so I felt like he was really listening and into the sounds all night long.
As it had been several months, I was able to take in the sound more this time around as I was better prepared for it. Last time I feel like I was caught off guard by how good Detcord Noose was for their first show. This time I knew. And I think one of the best ways to think of Detcord Noose (which a lot of people might not get) is they remind me of a band like Silent Drive, who just had this way of combining melody with a heavier sound.
But Silent Drive went from elements of emo to a heavier hardcore sound like Glassjaw. Detcord Noose just remains in this realm of heavy, even when the songs slow down, and so it feels like they have that range of a band like Silent Drive but the sound itself is set to something heavy like Liturgy or Dead To Fall. And, as an added bonus, it just feels good to hear some really solid metal again.
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