[ATTENDED: March 6, 2022] Holy Fawn
Holy Fawn was supposed to open a show I was going to go to a while ago. I didn’t go for whatever reason, but here they are again.
“Candy” started out kind of slow and atmospheric. There were quiet guitars and whisper/sung vocals by Ryan Osterman. It had a powerful shoegaze vibe. After a minute or so drummer Austin Reinholz started hitting a martial beat that felt like it was heading to a burst of noise. But that never came. It wasn’t until almost four minutes into the song that it burst forth. And at nearly five minutes started screaming in an intense growl–but just for the end of the song.
“Dark Stone” worked the other way. After some slow swirling intro sounds, the band played a heavy chord and then silence. And it worked that way as the full band kicked in–loud crashing chords followed my ambient noise. vocals were quiet and clean as the band played a picked guitar melody and interesting sounds from the second guitarist Evan Phelps. The song just built and built on a wall of noise with crashing guitars, lots of cymbals and screams from bassist Alexander Rieth (who was into the music bodily–bouncing and headbanging like crazy).
Osterman broke a string during that song and then said “in lieu of breaking a string, we’re going to play a new song.” Not exactly correct usage but the point was made. That new song was called “Death is a Relief” and it was great. Building on the other songs but branching out in simple ways.
“Arrows” was up next. This song was quite different from the others. It features a cool opening drum pattern and quiet guitars. Osterman sang softly as the guitars mixed. After two and a half minutes they hit a wall of noise that lasted for just a second and then returned to the complex music. After five minutes the song paused and then shifted to a heavy intense pounding riff and what I think was everybody screaming the lyrics.
Like Midwife, they only played five song, but these songs were amazing. I couldn’t get over how into this band I was. The crowd was also really into it. At the end of the set, someone shouted–okay we can go home now.
They ended the set with “Seer” a nearly eight minute song that builds quietly. Phelps played some soaring notes while the rest of the band played quietly along. I enjoyed that Phelps often played the high strings by the tuning pegs to get a high piercing sound.
I loved how into the set everyone was. Reinholz was smiling through the whole set and, as I mentioned, Rieth was totally into it.
As the song grew to a close the band gathered together around the drums and just pounded out the end. It was great and totally catahrtic.
It was during the break after their set that I played around with my camera settings and learned why all my pictures of Holy Fawn were so terrible. Some kind of enhance setting that basically washed out all of the colors.
- Candy ß
- Dark Stone ‰
- Death Is a Relief {new song}
- Arrows ‰
- Seer ‰
ß The Black Moon ()
‰ Death Spells (2018)
new song
The songs are slow and moody with lots of echo and
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