8:00pm doors. $12 adv., $15 door. 21+. Proof of vaxx and mask required.
Don’t miss the Oakland half of the Kowloon Walled City split-Bay day-night double header album release!!!
In the world of heavy music, few bands embrace dynamics and negative space like Kowloon Walled City. Since forming 15 years ago, the band has increasingly refined its deconstructed approach to noise rock, math rock, and doom, landing them on stages with similar boundary-pushing bands like Neurosis, Yob, Sleep, Sumac, and Thou.
Now, with Piecework (Neurot Recordings/Gilead Media), the band’s fourth album and first in six years, Kowloon Walled City reaches new levels of restraint. Songs are bleak and slow, but also shorter and more concise. With the gristle stripped away, bone and muscle remain: drums decaying in a room, bass strings rattling, a lonely guitar chord. Sometimes, it’s almost uncomfortably barren. But the negative space also amplifies the ruptures of heady aggressiveness that anchor Piecework. Angular guitar notes from Howell skew off the neck, dissolving into space. Ian Miller’s bass lines churn in the muck. Drums and cymbal smashing by Dan Sneddon punctuate dead air. (Sneddon, formerly of Early Graves, makes his recording debut with the band five years after joining.) There’s sadness and anger in Evans’ shouted vocals, but also a desire for something better. Piecework feels not only like an artistic accomplishment but a triumph of perseverance and vision.
“At this point, Kowloon Walled City sound like a cross between Slint and Neurosis, blurring the lines between post-rock, post-hardcore, and post-metal in a way that sounds entirely bleak. There's a beauty to the production and the crisp musicianship, but the songs never sound bright or uplifting. The music feels as apocalyptic as recent works by Swans and Daughters, and like those bands, Kowloon Walled City are proving to have serious longevity.” - Brooklyn Vegan
Rip Room Once described as “dance music for people who don’t like to dance,” Rip Room prefers the humble designation “dance music for people who like to dance … but are also bummed out”.
This three-piece from San Francisco play high-energy art punk with a math-y, prog edge — propulsive rhythms and piercing lyrics, but with a sense of buoyancy — wolves in sheep’s clothing.
The group is releasing its first full-length record in 2022.
Greyhound - Oakland hardcore.