[ATTENDED: October 28, 2017] Endon
I had never heard of Endon before this show. They are a Japanese metal band who seems to have coined the term “catastrophic noise metal.”
And they were easily the most intense band I have ever seen live.
The guys on the left walked out on stage. They said nothing, just picked up their gear. The guitarist played a chord and everyone around me immediately put in earplugs.
The other three guys came out on stage. So it was Koki Miyabe on guitar, Shin Yokota on drums. I only saw his face in this picture.
Behind Miyabe was a keyboardist. He seemed like he was manipulating effects more than anything else–all manner of (really loud) sounds emanated from his knob twisting. (no picture of him because he was in the dark most of the time). This guy was either Taro Aiko or Etsuo Nagura. I’m not sure which as they are both listed as paying electronics.
By far the most interesting guy was the other of these two, way over on the right. When he walked out he was wearing a satchel of some sort–a messenger bag, it looked like. And he didn’t take it off. He was manipulating whatever was on the keyboard rack. And then, a little while later I looked over and he was “playing” the messenger bag. It was plugged in, had some kind of spring at one and end his was strumming it like a guitar–but he wasn’t strumming anything at all, just the side of the thing. Sometimes tapped his fingers on it, a few times he banged it against his head. I really have no idea what sounds he was making, (It was all so loud), but it was fascinating to watch him.
The first song they played was about five-minute long. And for the first 2 and a half minutes it was the same chord–the loudest chord ever-played fast and heavy over and over. There were all kinds of noises included in the barrage but Miyabe’s chord never altered.
I assumed they were going to be an instrumental drone band.
Then a few minutes in to the song, they stopped dead quiet, paused and then started up again–same chord. They were incredibly tight. They did this with more frequency and that was the song–one chord, a lot of noise and intense time changes. It’s called “Nerve Rain,” by the way.
As the song neared its end, a fifth guy came out. He stalked the stage, made anguished faces and then grabbed the mic. And he had more energy than anyone else.
He is Taichi Nagura, the singer of the band. He walked around like an emotional wreck. And then he let loose with a power and rage I’ve never seen before. Within seconds he was sweating. I’m only bummed that either because of where I was (up front) or the intensity of the guitar, I couldn’t really hear him. Which is amazing because I could see how loudly he was screaming.
Having listened to their records on bandcamp, I hear that he is not usually mixed very loudly, anyhow, but I still feel like he should have been a little louder given how much effort he was putting out. After the set the guy behind said he thought he might have been unplugged.
The impressive thing was the range of his screams–guttural growls, high piercing shrieks, big sustained wails. It was intense. He seemed really full of rage, and yet it never felt directed at the audience. I saw a quote in which he said the rage is not external but internal–fighting the demons inside of him. And he seemed genuinely affected by what was happening–whimpering at the end of a song.
I have no idea if he was singing words or just screaming, but the various voices served the songs well.
I was right in front of and it was a lot of fun watching how into the songs he was. He was equally as intense as the rest and was able to wave his guitar around quite a lot.
The onslaught was intense and when they ended their set (and we weren’t exactly sure they were done) the silence was deafening. And then someone behind me shouted “that was fucking awesome” and we all cheered like crazy.
Whether or not everyone liked it (and they were there for Boris so I’m sure they did), it was an unforgettable set.
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