Holy Fuck @ Middle East Upstairs 5/21/09

When I saw that Holy Fuck were going to play the Middle East Upstairs this past Thursday I was pretty excited. The Stu Reid Experiment loves the Middle East as a venue and I have been wanting to check out the Upstairs for some time now. Dinner at the restaurant was tasty, great lamb and cous cous dishes. The Upstairs itself is pretty awesome, max capacity of approximately 200 in a tight little room. Unfortunately, with Chris missing tonight, we have no cool pictures.

The Crocodiles opened and were overly loud for no apparent reason. Most of their actually enjoyable melodies were drowned out by an excessively disonnant sea of distortion, that while fitting in with their too-cool-for-school vibe, detracted from their set. All in all though, they were not half bad and they did a successful job in warming up the eardrums for Holy Fuck.

Holy Fuck came out around 11:30 and despite some initial issues with their complex equipment, they got right into creating their electronic grooves. Huddled in a cluster in the middle of the stage with a couple of tables of electronic equipment, a drum set and a bass, Holy Fuck had great chemistry in forming, dense, stentorian electronic jams that were built upon a foundation of driving bass and organized drums. Holy Fuck really is an electronic jam band. Cobbling together samples and using a wide range of devices from a melodica, to buzzers seemingly taken from late 80s video games and even a device where 35 mm film is pulled through a press to create sound. The textured wall of sound they were able to produce constantly throughout the set was impressive and overpowering, but also melodic at the same time. While most of the songs blended together for me, Tone Bank Jungle was a standout, although the whole affair was a jam. 

Holy Fuck - Lovely Allen (YSI) (filesavr)

Holy Fuck - Safari (YSI) (filesavr)

Holy Fuck - Tone Bank Jungle (YSI) (filesavr)