Swan Fungus - Live review 11/15/08
…[T]here was an amazing line-up scheduled to perform Saturday night in Chinatown at Mountain Bar. Ancestors, Conifer, Lightning Swords of Death and Earthless. For the first time perhaps since the Bottling Smoke Festival, there were four bands on the same bill in Los Angeles that I actually wanted to see. Ancestors deafened me once before at The Smell, but on that night I was more excited to see Suishou No Fune, so I wanted to see them again and give the music a chance to capture me. I’ve been listening to Conifer since their self-titled album appeared on an Aquarius Records mailing list, and was overjoyed to see them performing in LA for the first time (at least, the first time I’m aware of). Lightning Swords Of Death opened for Wolves In The Throne Room last year and impressed me with their epic black metal tunes and their penchant for choking everyone in the room with a fog machine on full blast for the duration of their set. Earthless, of course, gets much respect on this site for their amazing psychedelic, kraut-y, monstrous space-rock jams.
The upstairs room at Mountain Bar has no ventilation, just a series of fans blowing in various directions. All the lights, save for one measly bulb off-center on the left-hand side of the room, were turned off for the entire evening. This made photography difficult, but definitely aided the mood. The setting was perfect for a series of low-end heavy, grim and grungy, ultra-psychedelic rock bands (and one black metal band).
Ancestors took the stage fifteen minutes before ten o’clock, and played for thirty or forty minutes. I think they were the loudest band of the evening, but somebody else who stayed for all four acts might beg to differ. They employed two keyboardists, which I don’t remember at all from last time I saw them. Their monumentally heavy jams fall somewhere between psychedelic heavy metal and space rock on the music-journalist-genre-o-meter. The first tune they played was slow and featured sporadic shouted vocals. The only other tune that I remember was the latter portion of “Orcus’ Avarice” from their recent Neptune With Fire LP, which sounds like a stoner rock rendition of a Godspeed You! Black Emperor dirge. It was lumbering and repetitive and triumphant. I yearned for the grand riff to reach a stunning crescendo, and I was not let down. Out of the four acts on this night, Ancestors played the best set. Everything was perfect. The pant-leg-shaking volume, the long, drawn out jams, and the beautiful arc of “Orcus’ Avarice” completely changed my opinion of the band, and overshadowed the other three bands’ performances. Do yourself a favor and get your hands on Neptune With Fire. [Listen to “Orcus’ Avarice” (edited)]
