Boris
@ Lee’s Palace,ย Toronto
August 11, 2016
Near the beginning of Borisโ set, when the shrouded Takeshi plucked his ungainly double-necked bass/guitar, I felt something hit the top of my head. No, not the swirly nub of a flicked-on halogen, but tiny white chunks of โฆplaster? Closer examination revealed that yes, the ceiling of Leeโs Palace (Torontoโs musical Domus Aurea) was in a happy state of dilapidation. And Leeโs could not have hosted, on Thursday night, a band more threatening to their crumbling 1985 architecture.
In light of the power trioโs (see: rhinoceros beetle; silverback gorilla; green anaconda) reissue of Pink (originally released in 2006), Boris have embarked on a lengthy string of shows, performing the entire album, in various Rubikโs configurations, with deluxe edition bonus tracks thrown in for variety.
On Thursday night they opened with the blustery โBlackout,โ and pushed on from there with powerhouse, distortion-heavy pieces; here invoking Metallica, there invoking Kyuss, and, at times, embracing the wondrous fatalism of recent collaborator Merzbow.
The speed-Rock of โPseudo Breadโ (during which drummer-vocalist Atsuo yelped on off-beats, whipping the crowd into a frenzy) and the Stoner-Rock incantations (plus eely Wata guitar work) on โAfterburnerโ were the highlights of the setโs first half.
The ambient soul-scraping โMy Machineโ gathered the ropes before the double-outro of โJust Abandoned Myselfโ and โFarewellโ sucked all the air out of Leeโs Palace in a dense but sustained catharsis. The monumental oneness of Borisโ sound on โJust Abandoned Myselfโ and the catatonic flow on โFarewellโ proved to be, even in hypothetical isolation, well worth the price of admission.
Whooping chants of โBo-ris! Bo-ris!โ catalyzed an encore featuring two new songs, โMemento Moriโ and โKilmister,โ before the trio, thankful to break away from the humidity (maybe those black garbs werenโt so apposite after all) exited stage-right.
Borisโ live show captured, in just under two hours, what their breed of โMetalโ specializes in: mutation. Sludge Metal, Shoegaze, Ambient Drone, Noise-Rock, gong-blasting avant-garde hymnal chanting โ these are the ingredients in the Boris goulash. Bring your appetite (and earplugs)!
โย Nicholas Fazio
Artistย Links
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SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: BORIS – DEAR
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: BORIS – PINK (DELUXE EDITION)
SPILL NEW MUSIC: BORIS PREMIERE UNRELEASED TRACK FROM 10TH ANNIVERSARY PINK ALBUM DELUXE REISSUE
