glasslands 2.23: black mountain / bon iver / children

I got to Glasslands a song or two into Children‘s set last night, and was pretty much floored immediately. Oftentimes, seeing an ostensibly metal band in NYC can mean watching a group that borrows the imagery and feel of a metal band without actually delivering. I can safely attest that Children are the real deal: full-on, no-bullshit thrash that never really let up. And evidently, I’ll be seeing them again tomorrow with dälek at Mercury Lounge. Can’t argue with that.

At the time that Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago was recorded, the group was essentially Justin Vernon. The live version of the band is a trio, and it works quite well, especially in the massed harmonies that Vernon can summon up on record via multitracking. The Glasslands sound system tends to be more suited to bands at the noisier end of the spectrum, and at times Vernon seemed uncomfortable with the feedback that kept filtering in to the mix. It didn’t seem entirely out of place; at the previous night’s Bowery Ballroom show, there was a fair amount of conscious dissonance, which helped to make the more subtle elements of Vernon’s songs stand out even more. At Glasslands, there was a point about halfway through Bon Iver’s set where you could see Vernon essentially make his peace with the distortion; he rose and proceeded to gather it, to intensify it, and the rest of the band followed suit. The result was pretty breathtaking.

Seeing Black Mountain on consecutive nights in spaces as disparate as Glasslands and the Bowery really brought different facets of the band to light. This is definitely a band in which each member’s contributions are clear, where they’re very much the result of these particular five people making music together. Hearing them on a clear, higher-end system like the one at the Bowery makes this clear: you can pick up on the interplay between instruments, hear the nuances of their songs, detect the subtler flourishes at work. The Glasslands set served as a reminder of just how visceral a rock show the band is capable of: a packed house, and nearly everyone in motion for the duration. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday night; not at all.