Notes on Kylesa 10/26 in Philly

I went to see a great band last night. It's very close to Halloween, so I dressed up like a rock critic and headed down to the Starlight Ballroom in Philly to see Savannah, Georgia's own Kylesa. They happened to be opening for High On Fire, they have a hot, tough chick who plays pretty sick lead guitar and sings, they have two drummers who make Jaimoe and Butch from the Allman Bros. look like rank amateurs...and they are loud enough to make the Yeungling bottles shake like scared children  in the back of the bar cooler. Their new album is called Spiral Shadow, and its louder than a Tea Party. Go get it.

Here are my notes, scratched into a moleskine in the dark, as usual. Some pics will follow.

Goldtop entrado
Burning grenades in a rusty tumbler
convulsion and propulsion from twin skins
coughing rockets
spiral shadows trembling
gold bottom goddess
a rush of pretty finger.


Cant see your sleeve
let me see your sleeve
ride cymbal pinging rivets like a brain metronome
click track bomb track
shooting bullets into a god operated wind tunnel
invite only.

So many beats, so little time
frenetic pace of huffing riff
aromatic dangling spliff

Its the rhythm, stupid.
ball peen hammer in the membrain.
drum circle gone wrong, wring of
black fire.
Hacking dragon, wing swept riff
finger tapping amperage princess
up and down the neck like she's waterboarding Thor.

These thunder gods like chainmailed rockettes
kicking out beastly rhythms in unison.
She sings from gossamer to gargoyle.
There is a ticket taker in Hades counting the scratch.

Every song a sludgy meth march to an unveiling
stripped us down to tooth and bone
shivering then ground to dust and memory.

Pummeled into powder for a confidence gun
battle cries hurled from crests
of castle walls and bottomless pits

This busted busty hussy popping wrist veins
choking out notes
clunky wrings clutching knuckles
both barrels blown
we're barely breathing.

As the four sticks submit, we submerge
from stunned punching
popping bearings careening off of
bulldozer blades ,
pushing the sleep away,
liquify crust.
This rain dance brings fire
this drum circle sparks war.

Kylesa rolls the bottom, down in the hole
crash cymbals like mountains high fiving in storm fronts.

                Georgia has the cold dead finger on the racing pulse of metal, these days. Mastodon, Baroness, Kylesa, Black Tusk. Don't fear those beards. And when 3D blacklight posters of band Co-leader Laura Pleasants come out, ship mine here.