AFTERNOON SHOW! 1:00pm doors, 1:30pm music.
$12 adv., $15 door. ALL-AGES! Proof of vaxx and mask required.
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
Oakland, CA based hard rockin proto-metal sweetheart band, Psychic Hit, was formed in 2017 by guitarist Andrea Genevieve (Queen Crescent, Purple Rhinestone Eagle) and vocalist/violinist Ariana Jade (Hedersleben, Nik Turner’s Hawkwind). Having met through the thriving Bay Area rock n roll network, the tenacious pair began to dream up a project that fused their wide-ranging tastes in music. What resulted was a band that would combine the raw power of early Judas Priest and Scorpions, the melodic sensibilities of Fleetwood Mac, and the esoteric appeal of lesser known acts such as Lucifer’s Friend and Flower Travellin’ Band.
Although Psychic Hit’s sound is heavily influenced by both 70s greats and rarities, the band is anything but an anachronism. Like modern contemporaries such as Kadavar, Lucifer, and Hällas, Psychic Hit seeks to recast rock music in their own image, rather than to just simply imitate eras past. In an age where the dark forces of monotony and monocracy loom large on the horizon, Psychic Hit appeals to their listeners to embrace the regenerative, communal power of rock n roll.
Detroit native, Oakland resident, and general wanderer Evelyn Davis is an inside/prepared/new music pianist, improvisor, pipe organist, composer, vocalist, synthesist, teacher, songstress, and maker of /participator in oddly shaped musics with an occasional side of performance art. Evelyn fronts CHIROMANCER, a plate-juggly art rock duo.