Regardless of whether it was airborne electricity that hit Great Scotts, there was definitely something palpable in the air Monday. As the night went on it kept building until you could almost cut the current with a knife in the moments before Providence, R.I.'s Lightning Bolt began to play.
Opening the show was mongoloid noise-makers Bunnybrains. The Bunnybrains have been in existence for quite some time now, living on a strict diet of dangerous drugs, booze, and really obtuse noise, according to the band's Web site. The band isn't so much a music group as it is a performance art piece, complete with weird masks, topless girls, and men wearing dresses, all performed over dire art noise.
Needless to say, it was awesome. At times the whacked out stage act recalled such '60s "happenings" as Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable and San Francisco's Acid Tests with the confrontational bent of early 80's freak-punks the Butthole Surfers.
Next up was Japan's DMBQ, who have just finished up a short tour with Lightning Bolt. As the band set up on the small Great Scotts stage, two people who had seen them play the night before in Providence were talking in the crowd.
Notable excerpts from this conversation included "the singer broke his arm after falling from a pipe 15 feet above the ground" and "they set their equipment on fire."
DMBQ sound might best be described as epic stoner rock, ala Mudhoney and Black Sabbath, complete with ridiculous solos, screeching vocals, and pretty awesome "rock out" faces. The crowd responded enthusiastically to everything they were given, slamming into one another with abandon.
After DMBQ finished up its set of epic guitar rock, Lightning Bolt began to set up on the floor of Great Scotts.
The band doesn't perform on a stage; rather it performs on the floors of the venues it plays, allowing the audience to come right up to it. The music is also insanely loud. For just drums and bass, the Providence band uses an almost absurd amount of amplifiers, but it is necessary to achieve its unusual brand of noise rock.
From the first song the crowd became a chaotic mass of bodies, jumping and flailing about for most of the set. Despite a few technical glitches (due to the sheer amount of people who were crowding in front of bassist Brian Gibson's setup), Lightning Bolt charged on, spewing forth damaged noise rock like a schizophrenic robot.
Though the set consisted of mostly new material, the duo did entreat the audience to favorites like "Assassins" and "Dracula Mountain" off of their last LP Wonderful Rainbow.
Despite the sweaty, chaotic conditions, Lightning Bolt nevertheless put on an incredibly inspired set. Though its fractured rhythms, distorted vocals, and chaotic time changes aren't for everyone, the adventurous would be ill advised to ignore them.
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