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So Russian Circles and Chelsea Wolfe launched the European tour last night in Prague

first on the bill was Chelsea... to be honest, I liked the previous album more, but I was really curious about how will the new one work live. Now... when going to her shows, one must not expect an energy-filled show. It's all about atmosphere and that eerie theme that goes through her music all the time... good thing I got high with this amazing result of feeling every note more sharply and deeply I must say that her singing was pretty much spot on like from the album, the music got heavier and dirtier and they ended the gig with five minutes of brutal noise and feedback... sonic experience par excellence the acoustic encore afterwards was very soothing in contrast. Pretty damn good show!! but it is what it is

Her guitarist played a strat (?!) with a big pedalboard which - from what i gathered - was a lot about fuzz and verb, slide, ebow and masterly use of EB volume pedal and feedback no other pedal spotting (i mean i THINK i saw a Blue Box, Ibanez AD9 and something that looked very EQDish, but the layout doesn't really match any of their pedals..), I was in the second row, but the stage was pretty tall... from what i could see was that half of the times, he had like 7 or 8 pedals on at the same time
I was on the opposite side from the bass guitar, but shit, that guy had some mean fuzzes as well frikkin crazy low end and dirt, just crushing



I loved how Brian Cook just straight up set up droning noises for the time being before they set everything up a big surprise for me was how sharp and bright Mike's sound is. also those Verellens are fucking LOUD They played a very cool mix of the new song (Deficit, 1777 and Burial as an encore WITH CHELSEA, OF COURSE), about half of Empros (309, Mládek, Shipol) plus older songs... like HARPER LEWIS , Station, Geneva and stuff...

Now the important thing with Russian Circles is that Dave Turncrantz is a genius drummer. His rhythms are simply so groovy, you just can't help it, you have to move... accompanied by amazing volumes (also great frequency-division, those guys know where their instruments should play) and great musicianship (masterly looping skills, tasty effects, awesome drones between songs... and Brian Cook in Schipol - playing a controller for his Moog Taurus for the low bass sounds and doing the high melodies on his bass... truly astonishing, I LOVE THAT GUY) made this a totally amazing show

AN ABSOLUTE MONOLITH OF SOUND AND STRAIGHT-UP FULL-ON SATAN, SON

yeah, this was my first time seeing them

oh and no need to emphasize that it was absolutely nerdgastic... The sheer amount of gear on stage was overwhelming...

First absolute nerdgasm was that Brian actually uses the First Act baritone live


other than that, a HUGE pedalboard, Gibson RD and LOUD CRUSHING BASS. I am a total fanboi the Baritone, of course, sounds stellar


CONCLUSION or TL;DR - GO AND SEE THEM YO

So jealous.

Was Chelsea's setlist the same as this one?
http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/chelsea-w ... 781a8.html

Looks very similar if not completely identical

I'm going to see them in a couple of weeks! Pretty pumped about it, I'll have to familiarise myself with Chelsea Wolfe a bit more before going.

DarkAxel wrote: a big surprise for me was how sharp and bright Mike's sound is. also those Verellens are fucking LOUD

Yeah they're a super heavy band but his sound is bright and clear which I like a lot more than those guys who just sound like mud.

maaan that would've been an awesome show.

I got to see RC last year and they were incredible. None of them spoke a word the whole time and they had the most minimal lighting setup, really awesome atmosphere. Flawless musicianship, too.

oh yeah, shittons of fog and some evil and sparse lights i'll post some photos later once some of the photographers upload them

it was all very evil, so awesome... makes me think of my pedal needs and choices as well

monkeydancer wrote:I'm going to see them in a couple of weeks! Pretty pumped about it, I'll have to familiarise myself with Chelsea Wolfe a bit more before going.

DarkAxel wrote: a big surprise for me was how sharp and bright Mike's sound is. also those Verellens are fucking LOUD

Yeah they're a super heavy band but his sound is bright and clear which I like a lot more than those guys who just sound like mud.

yeah, man absolutely focused and clear sound... have fun seeing them!

oh sorry for the double post, but - one thing that bothered me was that between songs, with Chelsea, there was this absolute and quite awkward silence... RC had the drone boxes and loops and stuff making noise, so it was all very lively and kept us focused

also a thing i need to keep in mind with my band

monkeydancer wrote:I'm going to see them in a couple of weeks! Pretty pumped about it, I'll have to familiarise myself with Chelsea Wolfe a bit more before going.

DarkAxel wrote: a big surprise for me was how sharp and bright Mike's sound is. also those Verellens are fucking LOUD

Yeah they're a super heavy band but his sound is bright and clear which I like a lot more than those guys who just sound like mud.

With all the tapping and misc. noodle-y flourishes in their music, a dark tone would devolve into mud pretty quickly, esp. with all that glorious echo.

btw Mike uses an El Cap now suits him really well i'd say

Is Brian cook still using a table mounted Moog for his whalesongs?

Saw them two summers ago playing stuff from Empros. Was about two feet away from Brian the entire concert. His bass was so goddamn loud and clear all at the same time.

Fucking amazing band!

Sadly, i was at Mike's side of the stage, so I can't really talk about Brian's stuff too dark/too far away

but he definitely used a cool, simple ground controller for the Taurus stuff

DarkAxel wrote: I was on the opposite side from the bass guitar, but shit, that guy had some mean fuzzes as well frikkin crazy low end and dirt, just crushing

SHIVA, SON.

DarkAxel wrote: RC had the drone boxes and loops and stuff making noise,

SOMMS, SON.

DarkAxel wrote: but he definitely used a cool, simple ground controller for the Taurus stuff

MINITAUR, SON.

DarkAxel wrote:Brian's stuff

(among other things.)

I wish I was on tour with them instead of a bunch of my gears.

Oh yeah, i remember seeing something that looked like Shiva from the distance! Couldn't see it clearly, but it came to my mind

Love you, Aen, you make those sonic experiences possible

monkeydancer wrote:I'm going to see them in a couple of weeks! Pretty pumped about it, I'll have to familiarise myself with Chelsea Wolfe a bit more before going.

Looks like most of her live stuff is pulling from Pain is Beauty and Apokalypsis, arguably her two best albums. Listen to those