Deafheaven leaves Vancouver shell-shocked

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      At the Rickshaw Theatre on Thursday, December 4

      If Deafheaven taught Vancouver a lesson during its first-ever visit to these parts, it’s that sometimes nothing prepares an audience for pure blinding brilliance.

      It’s not like we hadn’t been warned. The San Fran black-metal deconstructionists have built plenty of buzz over the past two years, primarily on the back of their sophomore album, Sunbather. Released in January 2013, the record has garnered universal acclaim, ending up on every 2013 best-of list that mattered.

      What got everyone excited is the way founding members George Clarke and Kerry McCoy committed to pushing their chosen art form forward. Black metal might be the base they operate from, but that didn’t stop them from loading the album with sunbursting shoegaze and glacial postrock.

      Add the fact that Sunbather is smart and challenging, the lyrics exploring themes of lust, materialism, and rage in ways that actually make you think. Considering all of this, Deafheaven arrived at the Rickshaw with expectations raised impossibly high.

      Despite the palpable anticipation, no one could have predicted what followed. When the smoke and shrapnel finally cleared, the only thing to do was stand there dumbfounded, staring at a merch booth that had just been looted.

      To survey the Rickshaw crowd mid-set was to watch every head in the audience nodding in reverential unison, from the foot of the stage right up the old movie theatre’s aisles and back to the lobby. The pit was on high-boil, especially during death-from-above monoliths like “The Pecan Tree”.

      Clarke was the main attraction. As a metal frontman he’s a fascinating study. Instead of sporting a slobtastic T-shirt and ripped jeans, the singer wore a long-sleeved, buttoned-up black shirt, neatly pressed black pants, black socks, and vintage-style black Oxfords. Completing the clean and classic look, his short hair was smartly parted to the side. If you were paying attention to Clarke’s body language before the music started, you might have pegged him as a sensitive sort, the kind of soft-spoken guy who probably did well in drama and happily tended to keep to himself.

      That made his transformation as unexpected as it was stunning. Deafheaven arrived on a darkened stage to an ominious synth soundscape, Clarke placing a foot on the monitor and then staring off into space like a hot-wired soldier preparing for battle. As the churning guitars of McCoy and Shiv Mehra built, the singer became progressively more agitated. The dam finally burst as the five-piece roared into Sunbather’s opening track, “Dream House”.

      During a set where the volume hit new heights with every song, Clarke would prove one of the most captivating frontmen this side of Nick Cave, Iggy Pop, and that guy from Future Islands. At times, he’d stand at centre stage, grandly conducting a symphony no one but him could see. At others, he looked like a heavy-metal Mussolini, waving his arms in epic fashion, exhorting the audience to bring up an energy level that was already red-lined. Periodically, he’d abandon the mike and clasp hands with those in the front row while seemingly lost in silent prayer.

      Through it all, Clarke shrieked in a voice that suggested Belphegor trapped in a pool of holy water. Amazingly, he kept this up from the opening of the set right through to the closing hurricane, “Unrequited”.

      While Clarke was putting on a one-man lesson in the art of entertaining, the rest of Deafheaven brought the noise with unswerving power, creating an oppressive wall of sound that Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Explosions in the Sky would have marvelled at.

      It was fucking transporting.

      The night ended with McCoy’s amp feeding back like Glenn Branca carpet-bombing Berlin to the strains of Metal Machine Music. There’s a case to be made that this punctuation was entirely unnecessary. Still, it was funny to watch the survivors in the audience stand there with fingers jammed in their ears, mile-wide grins plastered on their stupefied faces.

      Deafheaven left the Rickshaw shell-shocked. This wasn’t just one of the most incredible concerts of the year, it was a complete and total annihilation. For that, no one can blame Vancouver for being unprepared.

      Comments

      4 Comments

      bester langs

      Dec 10, 2014 at 1:30pm

      and yet, not a mention of sumac, or was that too slobtastic? as a journalist, you missed an opportunity there to take this beyond the usual deafheaven circle jerk 'critics' love so much. also, not surprising at all. the straight's music section is hardly worth reading anymore.

      Mike Usinger

      Dec 10, 2014 at 1:40pm

      @bester langs

      First, thanks for the kind words!!
      I ran out of space in the paper proper, which is what this was written for. Musically, I liked Sumac a lot--kind of reminded me of Primus and Prong fistfucking each other. Thought the bass player's stage presence was awesome--sort of a one-man lumberjack-bobblehead vibe. Wasn't as enamored with the vocals--every song seemed to consist of the word "Braaaiiiiiins" being belched into the microphone in a fashion that suggest an Orc with a raging head-cold. And there you go!! Have a merry Christmas!!!!

      bester langs

      Dec 10, 2014 at 8:53pm

      typical defensive response i expected. while i do appreciate the spatial issues of your column restricting your limit, your quick spout-off shows you missed the boat again; hell, its almost like saying you actually don't give a fuck about locals, seeing how a quick search would have yielded that nick yacyshyn, of baptists, drums for them. i mean, even if you don't ever step 2 inches out of your rock journalist shell, you'd probably heard of him from dave grohl's proclamations. any other 2 second research would have pulled up the band names isis, russian circles and old man gloom as well-it was no cast-off opening band. again, maybe that's just too 'slobtastic' for you, but it is a fucking metal show. but again, i could imagine had deafheaven's name not popped up in every journalistic wankery last year, you probably would've missed the show. just like no one from the straight picked up on last may's loop show, which is sad, as every other major city they played, on an extremely rare and limited tour of europe and north america ran AT LEAST one write up in their rags. my point? you're out of touch. fuck, not only deafheaven's first show in vancouver, sumac's first show EVER, and a lot of folks at that show were anticipating it. that you spend a paragraph almost talking about the cult of clarke and his dressing choices? nah, beacuse you probably didn't even bother to look it up. when music journalists lose the itch to hunt, they should stop writing abut music.

      Mike Usinger

      Dec 11, 2014 at 12:26am

      Isis? Never heard of 'em. Same for Russian Circles. And yes, we are famously shitty at covering local music. You win!!!! Merry Christmas!!!! Oh and by the way I went to the show because I liked the record and had tried to set up an interview beforehand. I could care less about who blogged about them and where
      http://www.straight.com/article-232928/isis-balances-ferocious-and-serene
      http://www.straight.com/music/russian-circles-crafts-epics-no-strings-at...