Boris at The Garage
Boris – The Relentless Garage – 17th May 2010.
Words and Photos by Siamak Amini
The recently refurbished – and now apparently “Relentless” – Garage was the scene for Japanese headliners Boris to round off a short stop off in the UK following their appearance at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival curated by Pavement.
Opening act Alexander Tucker appeared on stage armed with – on the face of it – not much. He sat down and went about his business, looping and layering melodies and rhythms on the cello to create a barricade of noise. Utilising several stringed instruments, his songs would occasionally give way to accessible vocals reminiscent of a stoned-folk blend of the Human League and Depeche Mode. The crowd reaction at the end of his set was overwhelmingly positive, however for each song that knocked me over with its intricate layers and soaring vocals, there was another that left me pondering whether it might be worth checking out what the bar had to offer.
Prolific and diverse, it’s apparent that Boris don’t fit neatly into any specific “scene” of music or fashion. Now 18 years old, the band have covered everything from hour-long experiments in noise and drone through to more traditional verse-chorus-verse heavy rock songs. A quick look around the room reveals that in this time they’ve been picking up fans from all over the place, with hardened metal heads brushing shoulders with skinny-jeaned folk carrying “Rough Trade” bags.
For much of their set, the stage was flooded with dry ice and the lighting revealed little more than silhouettes of the band members. In keeping with this visual aspect, guitarist Wata; double necked guitar/bass wielding vocalist Takeshi and long time collaborator/touring guitarist Michio Kurihara seemed content to “let the music do the talking” and all but ignore the crowd for much of the set.
On the other hand, drummer Atsuo is an altogether different species of rock star. Walking onto the stage bare-chested apart from a sequined waistcoat, from start to finish he played to the crowd by beating all he could out of his kit (including his oversized gong); providing backing vocals in the form of excited yelps and screams and concluding the set with his trademark dive into the – by then – apparently possessed crowd.
This schizophrenic approach to crowd interaction could be applied as a metaphor for Boris’ music. Starting the set with the shoe-gaze like “Farewell” and moving onto the dreamy “Rainbow” (one of few Boris tracks where Wata provides her nervous but sweet vocals) it seemed like the crowd may have been in for a night of thoughtful listening. By the end of their set though, the band had got the pit circling with their fast paced stoner-meets-Motorhead songs such as “Korosu”, before threatening to literally bring down the roof with a crushing, slow and bass heavy encore.
How many other bands can relax a crowd to the brink of sleep with faraway, space like anthems before whipping them up into frenzy several times in less than 2 hours? I left the venue with rather unpleasant tinnitus, but bathed in a warm glow that only comes with witnessing a gig by a band as compelling as Boris.
