Saturday night I was looking at the dancing crowd and thinking that long hair had come back into style. The same thing happened last night, except it was all guys. And no dancing (except one guy during Monic's set). The crowd was quite a bit smaller too, though that's hardly surprising given that few have heard or know of headliners Black Mastiff. That's a pity because all three bands put on a hot sets - the drumming in particular was consistently killer.
First up was The Superlative, in "temporarily instrumental" mode. The four guys in the band are terrific musicians, so the performance didn't really suffer from a lack of vocals ... plenty of tasty dual guitar if you like some technical flash and fuzzy licks.
The Superlative at Mavericks, March 13, 2011
Here's some pick-scraping action.
The Superlative at Mavericks, March 13, 2011
Monic I've seen before at Zaphod's. They impressed me as a heavy psychedelic band then, and I'm just beginning to notice that frontman Kevin Plamondon sounds a bit like Tod A. from Cop Shoot Cop and Firewater. As usual they decorated their set with a cover of The Sex Pistols'
Submission, which sounds quite different with double-kick bass drum.
Monic at Mavericks, March 13, 2011
Nejra twists something.
Monic at Mavericks, March 13, 2011
Finally Black Mastiff really kicked out the jams with some super-heavy sounds ... a bit like The Queens of The Stone Age in that their vocals are a bit smoother than the norm for heavy metal nowadays - something like Torche in that regard. But their riffs are mastodon heavy - a real cruncher of a band. Also, they brought pointy things.
Black Mastiff at Mavericks, March 13, 2011
Bassist Clay Shea is of course also a veteran of Choke and Passenger Action, for whatever that's worth.
Black Mastiff at Mavericks, March 13, 2011
A fine evening of entertainment.
