(Live Review) BORIS + STARCRAWLER - Milwaukee, WI (10/10/24)
By
The Beard & Little Johnny
Welcome friends, fans, and followers to stop #63 and bands #211-12 on our 2024 tour. Tonight, the Beard is taking the very seldom utilized step of standing all evening as both he and Little Johnny (who is used to standing at shows), have travelled to the Vivarium in Milwaukee Wisconsin to witness Japanese band Boris, with special guests Starcrawler.
Boris will be celebrating the twenty fifth anniversary of their amazing album Amplifier Worship as they perform it live in its entirety and THAT my followers is reason enough to stand for the night. Boris, (who took their name from a Melvins song) first hit this country from Japan as a four-piece act in 1996 with their release of Absolutego a 65-minute track reminiscent of Melvins like drone. Once they switched to a three-piece, they began to expand the framework of their musical output. Amplifier Worship kept some drone base, but brought in doom and jam-based elements in a fantastic conglomeration of styles. 2005’s Pink incorporated stoner and shoegazing elements, while 2011’s Noise added elements of grunge rock to the mix.
Overall, Boris has released thirty-three studio albums, (and easily double that in collaboration and live releases), in just twenty-six years which is beyond prolific. Their live shows “could” be comprised of any type of music and truly no Boris tour is like any other. You generally just never know what you are going to get. That said, knowing I was going to hear Amplifier Worship all the way through was something the Beard was not going to miss. Little Johnny had seen Boris once before at Psychofest, but he was a bit inebriated that evening and attempted to sing "Mr. Roboto" to them (to the band’s confusion and bemusement), so this will be his first “true” Boris experience.
STARCRAWLER
Before Boris though, we got LA’s pop punk act Starcrawler for an opening set.
Starcrawler was a four-piece female fronted west coast punk band with pop sensibilities. Vocalist Arrow De Wilde could best be described as what would happen if 1978’s Cheri Currie mixed her DNA with Courtny Love. (Ed: I'll take the Currie for $1000 Alex.)
The rest of the band was uncomplicated and largely blended into the background once Arrow started singing. Without the “Wow this woman might do anything” vibe, Starcrawler would have seemed more like an America's Got Talent act that would get cut around the third round.
One catchy number, “If you’re gonna be dumb you gotta be tough” mixed a country sound with a punk/alt song. That was interesting, as were De Wildes’ L.A. antics. Unlike her infamous South by Southwest live gig in 2018 though, nobody got spit on, snotted on or had their personal items grabbed and chucked into the crowd. De Wilde was someone you paid attention to on stage, but ultimately Starcrawler, (as a quality musical act), were best classified as opening band time fillers. 74/100
Thoughts Johnny? “Hey. You think that singer's single Beard?”
BORIS
Boris live review
The lights dimmed, the low-end rumble began, and the Eastern land of the rising sun triumvirate emerged robed and dark. They opened into “Huge” a droning piece that, (In its day) would show Sunno))) where to begin their own drone heavy material.
This was a heavy and bestial low rumble, and even in the back it was already a bit painful, and I watched several people insert their ear plugs. Little Johnny must already regret being up front. As they moved into “Ganbou-Ki” the drone lessened from a volume of 100 to about 93 and the doom drumming began opening the window to another dimension for the ancient ones (or at minimum Godzilla) to enter.
Takeshi’s voice intones with the growl of a defrocked holy man raging at the gods as both Wata (guitars) and Atsuo (double necked Bass) play chords so thick they could bind the Kraken to the ocean bottom, while behind it all the heavy drumming continued unending and gradually picking up the pace until a frenzy was reached. This was the intention of Amplifier Worship, to break the wall of sound and find new sounds beyond it.
The crowd knew when to be respectfully silent during “Hamas” until Takeshi bashed the mystic gongs together again and again, (compelling the same kind of crowd response that Jimmy Page once elicited forty years ago when he utilized the violin bow in striking the guitar strings during live performances of "Dazed & Confused"), before the song broke into its final frenzy. A most excellently performed number and even the Beard responded with the horns.
Taking a break from Amplifier Worship, Boris would perform "Scar Box & Mass Mercury" showing the music they would eventually get to a few years later with their Pink LP. Lighting, although limited in this small venue, was a sickly green in front of a blood red sea. With the droning doom-laden sounds emanating from the stage, it looked like the evilest Christmas lights ever.
After a little back and forth in broken English thanking everyone for coming, Takeshi introduced the band causing a giant crowd pop with each person especially Wata who for a couple of decades has been the softest spoken, yet thunderously heavy, female guitar player in metal music. She acknowledged the cheers and admonitions of love from her fans with a simple “Thank you….. Is… everyone having….. a good time?” The fans let her know they were.
Then the band went into "Kuruimizu". This starts as the fastest song from the album for the first few minutes before devolving into a doomy droning cacophony stretching over fourteen minutes in length. Boris chose to skip playing the almost seventeen-minute drone of "Vomitslut" that ended the album, instead choosing to go with a more modern song ("Loveless" from 2020’s NO) as their encore. This was probably merciful since the droning "Vomitslut" is akin to seventeen minutes of having your head stuck in a speaker cranked to Spinal Tap's eleven. "Loveless" was something a little lighter to help bring back the audience’s hearing at least a touch while showing that Boris could play at a frenzied pace as well as a super slow one.
This was a show well worth standing in a crowded box for several hours. The Beard is cracking a cold one and awarding a 97/100 for this amazing Boris show and yes a potential set of the year candidate.
On the way back to the hotel, Little Johnny kept shouting because he couldn’t hear anything. “BEARD!!! THAT BAND WAS REALLY LOUD!!! BEARD!!! HEY BEARD!!! AM I TALKING? CAN YOU HEAR ME?” Little dude the entire city of Milwaukee can hear you. Sssshhhhh.”
That wraps it up for show #63 and bands #211-12. Time to get Little Johnny back so he can get some sleep and be ready for yet another show tomorrow night as our 2024 tour rolls on. Remember to catch our reviews at your home for heavy metal The Mighty Decibel @themightydecibel.com. Check out all the videos on our TikTok page @thebeard0728 or #thebeardandlittlejohnny and of course catch all the non-metal reviews by friending and following Mark McQueen on Facebook. Until next time, this is the Beard & Little Johnny saying Live Life, Stay Heavy and Horns Up.
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