I had a tough choice on the night between this and a very good black metal show out in Worcester, but this won out because, naturally, Parasitic does not put out a new album every week, and there is no shortage of good black metal shows in east central New England. I'm also starting to get to be more under the gun in terms of going to DIY shows in diversity and in numbers, to build up my stock of promotional materials before the Euro festival tour.
Thus instead of driving out to Worcester to see four bands, I drove into town, threaded my way through the exodus out of MIT's graduation, and hiked over hill, dale, and a couple bridges to get over just as the bands were starting to load in. The music wasn't going to be on for a while yet, but part of O'Brien's renovation a few years back included putting A/C in, which is a plus as spring bleeds into summer and Boston begins to resemble an open-air steam bath, and the beer was inside, not outside.
An hour, four CDs including Casketless, some disappointing Jozy Altidore news (if he can't play, we're going to have problems scoring against England, risking putting another major tournament in the "embarrassing failure" category), a crappy, disinterested start to the NBA Finals (not enough Boston games to win it if this is how the refs are going to call things in LA), and several cans of mildly beer-flavored industrial chemicals later, everyone was set up and soundchecked, and it was time to go.
Boarcorpse [6/7]
If this is a future indicator, then Boarcorpse have solidified, from a nebulous tech/weird act back in the Ouch days, into a committedly death metal tech-death band, but fortunately without losing the bizarre creativity that's been in from the beginning. This was a good performance from a dynamic and still-improving band, truly masters of Death Metal Technique. (Wait, what do you mean that's not what those initials stand for?) In some parts the total sound wasn't the clearest, but on DIY shows, as usual, a lot of that is going to be a function of where you're standing relative to the (usually non-mic'ed) amps, and by listening carefully I was still able to track in on whichever instrument wasn't coming through immediately. They've allegedly got a split coming out sometime in the future with Scaphism and Composted -- one to watch out for, for sure.
During the intermission, the basketball game had not gotten any better, so it was doubly good news when the headliners fired it up.
Parasitic Extirpation [6.5/7]
Sooo many slams.....and seriously, so much other good material as well. The Suffocation influences are still unmistakable, but Parasitic have moved beyond their antecedents, and also the other various bands that this supergroup formed from, in producing well-rounded, slammy, grooving death metal at a uniformly high level of execution. This was a near-perfectly turned performance that got a decent crowd response as well, despite most of the material coming off the new one and necessarily being a little unfamiliar to the audience. The next time out, at least in this area, that won't be the case; Casketless is a solid fucking record that the band moved quite a few of on this show, and it's going to be a regular guest in local CD players for a while yet.
Unfortunately, though, the band ran out of material up against the bar's closing time, and had to stop playing. Not only was the show over, but the Celtics had lost in a disappointingly petering-out fashion; fortunately, the quality of the performance we got lingered, making the walk back significantly easier.
Next show is tomorrow at Church; kvlt bands from Norway plus some worthy locals. I've also put in for my Party.San ticket, and while it hasn't arrived yet, I'm continuing to pester bands for extra stickers to hand out; eventually, the mails will get their job done, and I'll have full pockets of stuff to pass out to all and sundry.
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