Boris at Mohawk: Live Review

Posted by Josh Denslow on August 1, 2014 in BLOG, FEATURES, LIVE MUSIC · 0 Comments

Photo by Carlos J. Matos

Like any guy with a new baby, I found myself walking down Red River just as Boris strummed the first chords of their set. Late for the show. Which meant I’d missed Ceremony, who I’d been listening to for the last 24 hours like I was studying for an exam. I imagine they blasted quite the psychedelic garage set, and some brief reporting on their set has been provided by photographer Carlos Matos at the end of this post. For the sake of the audience, I hope they played that song where they say “She’s the girl with the blue green brown eyes” over and over again. I’ve had that phrase stuck in my head for a few days now. (Also, anyone is welcome to chime in if that’s not what they’re actually saying. But I hope they are.)

Photo by Carlos J. Matos

Boris, of course, wrapped the entire audience in duct tape and called our grandmothers for ransom money. Drummer Atsuo was as always the most showy. He yelped into his headset microphone as he pounded through the opening songs. They structured the set very much like their new album. First blasting us with frantic riffs and pulsing drums, and then bringing it down for a more contemplative affair. They hit their sweet spot here for me.

Photo by Carlos J. Matos

I’ve always enjoyed Boris at their most sludgy. In fact, I could probably create a graph that shows the correlation between my favorite songs and their corresponding BPMs. Plus watching Wata and Takeshi play slow motion chords is like being at the most warped Chuck E. Cheese of all time; they are so deadpan they almost appear animatronic. Wata in particular never changes her expression, no matter how heavy or foreboding the song. I’d hoped that Wata would sing a song, perhaps some of the dreamier stuff from the album Rainbow, but they stuck mostly with the new album. After seeing them numerous times, this was a bold choice. I usually don’t know what to expect. Last time I saw them at the Mohawk, they ran through a bunch of B-sides.

Photo by Carlos J. Matos

Takeshi took the brunt of the vocal duties, and I prefer him when he’s holding notes rather than rushing through choruses. The middle of the set was worth the price of admission. Plenty of hesitant drums and achingly beautiful distorted guitar. They picked up the pace one last time before descending into a glacial guitar meltdown. I had no idea until that very moment, but that’s all I actually wanted to hear. And not just that night. Turns out, I’ve been craving it for years. Atsuo stood on his drums and gesticulated wildly before diving into the crowd. Wata and Takeshi were perfectly locked, knowing instinctually when to hold the next chord. It was like falling into the crackling space between radio stations. Thank you Boris. I needed that. -JD

Photo by Carlos J. Matos

Thanks to photographer Carlos Matos, who showed up earlier in the night to catch a set by Ceremony. According to his account: Ceremony crushed, literally and figuratively, with a brutal selection of cuts from their 2008 release Still Nothing Moves You. Getting caught in between the stage and the body slamming crowd frenzy that followed, I felt like the proverbial schooner being shattered to pieces on a rocky shoal by the unsympathetic ocean. -CJM