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Archive for the ‘Midwife’ Category

Blood Incantation (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, November 25, 2024)

Posted in Blood Incantation, Hällas, Midwife, Philadelphia, PA, Tangerine Dream, Underground Arts on November 26, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 25, 2024] Blood Incantation

My brother-in-law Ben told me about Blood Incantation a couple of weeks before this show. So I grabbed a ticket just before it sold out!

With a name (and logo) like that, I assumed they were just a bludgeoning death metal band but they display all kinds of interesting progressive rock tendencies.  And those are fully explored on their newest album Absolute Elsewhere.

The album is 43 minutes long and consists of two songs.  Each song has three parts.  And they played the album in full for this show.

When I walked in I saw that there were an obelisk on either side of the stage.  It had characters carved into it and just before the band took the stage the characters lit up red.

When the band came out I couldn’t get over how the lead singer looked.  Paul Riedl has a mustache and long hair (balding on top) he looked like a manager at Staples.  But then he stepped up to the mic and went “OOH” and the growl was perfect.

Knowing that the album was a bit more trippy (with lots of synths and quiet parts) I wasn’t sure how moshy the crowd would be.  But as soon as the band started, and the opening bludgeoning began, I quickly had to move several feet to the right.

The song starts out with some pounding guitars and Isaac Faulk using all of his drum kit.  And after a squealing guitar and a bug grunted Oooh, the band took off with some seriously fast double bass drums and wild guitar soloing.

After 2 minutes of furiousness, the song slowed down dramatically with picked guitars and quiet washes of synths.  Three minutes later it’s back to the heaviness with some growled lyrics and wild soloing from Morris Kolontyrsky.

Jeff Barrett played bass and while I couldn’t seem him from where I was, his low end was felt from the speakers.

After 8 minutes, the song segued into Tablet II. (more…)

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Midwife (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, November 25, 2024) [BLOOD INCANTATION]

Posted in Blood Incantation, Midwife, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts on November 25, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 25, 2024] Midwife

My brother-in-law Ben told me about Blood Incantation a couple of weeks before this show. So I grabbed a ticket just before it sold out!

I knew they were death metal, and assumed that the opener would be as well.  But, wow, what a difference!

Madeline Elizabeth Johnston is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and audio engineer. She is best known for her work under the moniker Midwife, and has also released music as Mariposa and Sister Grotto. Johnston describes her music as “heaven metal.”

She came out on stage and her microphone was a telephone.  She spoke into it and her voice sounded a million miles away.

And it turns out that I have seen Midwife before!  They opened for Deafheaven.  And the funny thing is that I absolutely remembered a woman singing into a telephone, but I didn’t think it was the same person for some reason.  But I see from a previous post that I saw Midwife in 2022.  And I felt exactly the same as I did this time.

She created a beat on a drum machine and began playing very slowly.  She sang quietly, from a million miles away.

All my friends are in New York
All my friends are in LA
All my friends are in Chicago
All my friends in Santa Fe
All my friends in Colorado
All my friends are here to stay
How much more death can one person take?

It was the antithesis of death metal.  It was slow and ponderous.  I think had I not been there for a death metal show I would have enjoyed it more, but the crowd–dudes in leather and chains–ate it up.  I was really happy for her as she seemed like she could have been so vulnerable up there, but she was poised and powerful as she sang these slow songs about death.

Killdozer:

This has always been my town
Now it’s a living hell
Everyone wants a piece of me
How am I not myself?
All my songs are love songs
All my songs are blue
All my songs are about death

All of these songs were pretty long, but Midwife was given about 45 minutes to play.  I didn’t actually think she’d play another song after S.W.I.M. but then Morris Kolontyrsky of Blood Incantation came out and they played No Depression in Heaven together.

The lyrics to that song?

Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying Crying
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Kolontyrsky played beuatiful complicated solos over Midwife’s slow repeated guitars.  Her musical patterns are simple but effective and while he wasn’t showing off, he was playing some impressive lead solos.

When the set was over, they hugged and she began cleaning up her stuff.

I’d never listen to her music on purpose, it’s totally not my thing, but it was a mesmerizing performance.

 

2024 Underground Arts 2022 Union Transfer
Colorado £ Christina’s World £
Vanessa ⊗ God is a Cop £
2018 ∞ 2018 ∞
Killdozer ⊗ Colorado £
S.W.I.M. ∞ S.W.I.M. ∞
No Depression in Heaven ⊗ (with Morris Kolontyrsky of Blood Incantation)

∞ Forever (2020)
£ Luminol (2021)
⊗ No Depression in Heaven (2024)

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Deafheaven (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, March 6, 2022)

Posted in Deafheaven, Holy Fawn, Midwife, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on March 8, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 6, 2022] Deafheaven

I’m not a huge fan of Deafheaven, but the more I kept seeing this show advertised (and postponed and rescheduled) the more I thought I might really like to see them live.

I like their blend of shoegaze and screaming metal.  I couldn’t listen to a lot of it, but I figured a show would be just right.

The band’s newest album, however, is very different from past efforts.  There is almost no screaming at all.  Lead singer George Clarke who pretty much only screamed a largely incoherent rasp on previous records actually sang on this one.  The music wasn’t vastly different although it tended to be a bit less intense.

When I looked to see what their setlist was like, the show in late 2021 had them play the entire new album and then a couple old ones.  I wasn’t that excited by that prospect, but figured I’d still enjoy it.  And after Holy Fawn, I was ready.

They opened with “Shellstar” which is quite a pretty song.  I think I would have really liked it if it weren’t Deafheaven.  Plus, I had never seen any footage of them before.  Clarke was a wildly intense figure, but he was dancing and moving and shuffling.  Dressed all in black in a button long sleeve shirt, he moved about the stage and fully engaged with the audience. (more…)

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Holy Fawn (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, March 6, 2022) [DEAFHEAVEN]

Posted in Deafheaven, Holy Fawn, Midwife, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on March 7, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[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). (more…)

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Midwife (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, March 6, 2022) [DEAFHEAVEN]

Posted in Deafheaven, Holy Fawn, Midwife, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on March 6, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 6, 2022] Midwife

I was intrigued by the setup on the stage.  On the microphone stand there was a old-school telephone receiver.

Then Madeline Johnston came onstage with her guitar.  She spoke into the telephone and her voice sounded distant and far away.  It was pretty neat.

She then triggered a drum beat and started playing guitar over it.  She sang into it and her voice was spooky and sounded like it was coming from outer space.

Midwife plays was she calls Heaven Metal and falls into the “Slowcore” and “Sadcore” genre. (more…)

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