Maybe A Couple of Songs But Also Me Writing A Super Professional Review of Another Day in Roadburn Apr 18

PART I: THE DAY

So, if you read the first installment of this thrilling series of over-detailed, way-too-much-personal-info Roadburn posts then you would know day 1 (everyone else's day 2) was a rollercoaster of intense emotions, running from the very high (Yellow Eyes for fucking ever, Kowloon Walled City for fucking ever, Habak will you marry me) to the very low (starting at parents pushing their kids on a swing and feeling like the worst father/person in history). The next day, however, was a day of moderation. I didn't want to rush, I didn't want to have to see anything, that is except the "Inter Arma playing Sky Burial" show that I knew was coming. So, I woke up, I wrote yesterday's blog, which, I have to say, was very helpful to achieve equilibrium, and went on just doing what I felt like.

Step one was popping into the Q&A with Kim of Teardrinker. I talked about that show yesterday and how I wished I was more emotionally intact to fully take it in, but it was undoubtedly a very important event for a lot of people and I think I'm beginning to see why. Much of what we experience of other people's pain comes in as information, things you know, not always things you actually feel or are concerned about. I think Kim, via the Teardrinker commissioned piece, managed to make that pain communal pain, everyone's problem. And I think that was the effect of their lovely Q&A and the dignity and the respect and compassion they just emitted into the room. I hugged some people in that room, I will say that.

After that I thought I was going to see Blackwater Holylight but as it turned out so did everyone in the festival, so I kind of whiffed on that one, I guess. I then met some friends, had good coffee, and debated whether going to the Otay Onii show, which I took it was going to be incredible, but instead went to the Terzij de Horde show that was announced to be taking place in the Skate Hall (park?), which is quickly becoming my favorite place to see music anywhere.

Me Reviewing the Terzij de Horde show: It was great. The show was both very intense and very laid back, at least in the way the band handled it and it was both a great opportunity to get to see them finally live after many years and to kind of chill and headbang politely. Also, they played one of my favorites from them, "In One of These I Am Yout Enemy," which fucking ruled. 

I then left that show and again wondered about, may have eaten something, who knows. At that point I finally got to meet the great Nick McMaster, who I interviewed in 2020 about Years Past Matter, and it was great both see him and meet his lovely friends. More people, more connections, less loneliness, that's the deal, I think. I then also got to meet with Armand from the great tape label Breathe Plastic, who was kind enough to bring over some tapes I had ordered from home that couldn't have been shipped because of the war. Super nice man, go support his shit, hard. 

I popped into the Prostitute show, and within a minute felt like my time is better spent calling my family and so I did that. I mean, whatever the phone being taking away by a 3.5-year-old is called, not sure it's a conversation, but it was nice. Which reminds me I forgot to mention one huge event that took place after the Terzij de Horde show. I came out of the SkatePlace (new name) and saw I had a voice message from my wife. It was my son, my middle child, just turned eight, who is just the most unique, incredible, shy, beautiful creature. This is important context. He always never wants to talk when we're video chatting because I think he doesn't like it – not the fact that I'm gone but also communicating like that with everyone, not his style. Anyhow, that's the person he is. And then I open the message and it's him gleefully shouting that he made a free throw (basketball). I don't know if you have to go to a whole other country for that event to hit as strange and as hard as it did, but god damn I almost fell to the floor with love and just joy. That's a word I've been hearing a lot since I've gotten here, and one that I have been using a lot too. I think that might be significant.

Speaking of joy, I got to say goodbye to my wonderful friends at Yellow Eyes. Which was sad, because you can't really know when you're going to run into people you love and really not sad at all because I got to see them and chat with them throughout the weekend and that was a real blessing. A blessing. This shit isn't about, though I sometimes forget this fact, who knows what band or who listened to what first. It's about this – wonderful people making wonderful art. That's it.

After all that I just went ahead and parked my dad-ass VERY EARLY in the line to the Inter Arma show along with fellow Inter Arma superfans Chris and Brook, both readers of this blog and nice people so shout out to both of you. And here ensued what I suspect is a supremely Roadburn moment, wherein I talk to the nice fellow beside me about art and whatever and it turns out he's an energy researcher, and so I talked to him about my new book that's about war and the environment (kind of) and then another person just swiveled toward us and told us he never completed his PhD in Marxist Ecology or something. What the actual fuck. And then:

My astute review of the Inter Arma show playing Sky Burial in the SkateAbode: There's not much I can say here, I let me body take the lead on this one. I don't REALLY have to go into what this band this album mean to me, evidenced by this and this. So I parked my ass dangerously close to Mike's armpits, directly in front of TJ, and just let it rip. There might have been an audience at that show, it's possible that more people were there. I couldn't tell you. Magic.

I then debated going to ANOTHER SkateLocation show, Portrayal of Guilt, but decided I needed to invest in doing nothing again. I learned from my traumatic experience following Yellow Eyes yesterday that if you just experienced something very extreme in the positive then it might be best to cool off first. So I wondered aimlessly a bit, and randomly ran into a lovely brother and sister – Paula and Matti – and had a pretty great conversation about art and also about Matti's passionate love for the song "Despacito." Really impressive stuff. Anyhow, Paula, as it turns out, is a fucking incredible artist and tattoo person and so if you ever need art nouveau masterpieces on your body, she's the one. 

I then skedaddled to the Truck Violence show, also mentioned in yesterday's rec section. It was really lovely, and met friends, but I felt like the clock was ticking on my day. So I went to check out the Karoke, which was just a joyous thing. Pretty sure that I would have been easily convinced to do Korn's "Blind" but I chickened out and went home. It was fun singing "Black No. 1" with everyone though, what a fucking banger.

PART II: SOME MUSIC

Maranatha – "Benefactor," from King of Ruin (Sludge – Independent). Not sure how this band got on my radar, probably just from scrolling Bandcamp, but holy shit what a find (for me). Ruthless sludge from Ohio. You fucking know the violent arts are supreme when they come from such midwest wastelands such as Ohio. You're just that much angrier. Anyhow, amazing album, amazing track, and a new fave sludge band. 

Some Became Hollow Tubes – "They Don't Need a Reason To Kill You," from Seed Weed Freed Breed Lead Deed Greed (Experimental – Independent). A brilliant collaboration between Godspeed You! Black Emperor's drumming master Aidan Girt and Thisquietarmy's equally amazing Eric Quach. Their 2019 album, Keep it in the Ground has to be one of most underrated releases of this general vein in like a million years. I fucking loved it, still do. I wrote about it in one of the last iterations of the prior format of this rec posts (AKA dumping everything at once), and it was on my 2019 list, easy. I spent some time every now and again checking if they did anything else, and found out to my shock that they just released an album. To no one's surprise it's a breath of chilling fresh air, and yet another testament to the fact that drumming is the art of the gods. Must listen.