I spend the large majority of my allotted time in life on this rock spinning through space that we call Earth filing away sounds and artistic experiences in my otherwise empty head. Music is one of the ultimate rabbit holes. As much as you think you know about music, there is always more and more to learn or experience. You could take a subject such as the influences on and events leading up to King Tubby's Meets Rockers Uptown or the usual buzz subject of early black metal's controversial histories of Mayhem and Emperor (which often overshadow their music) or, say, the making of Coltrane's A Love Supreme, and you'll just find more and more layers of onion to peel. Not only is there such a rich diverse history of music in every genre to discover, but there are so many interwoven sub-genres full of iconoclasts who were unafraid to take the limitations/conventions of "normal" rock music seriously (such as the majority of Swans records, for example). It is always fun to learn more, participate in creating or writing about music, and adding to or discovering threads of music's vast history.

I live in Upstate, New York near the town of Woodstock in the tea party despised, generally liberal Catskills, but used to live in Brooklyn. The Jarboe show was a few blocks from where I once lived with an ex-girlfriend and sometime Crusher photographer Megan. Megan was just the main person in Lucero's very fun "Sounds Of The City" Video, which is really trippy for me to watch because it feels like snapshots from my New York City days. Union Pool is one of my favorite little bars in Brooklyn that Meg and I used to sometimes haunt and generally has great shows and a lot of tomfoolery on the open air back patio between the main bar and the stage rooms.

The Jarboe Union Pool show was the first night of a fantastic week-long rock’n’roll odyssey for me. My bus ride to Chicago was due to leave the next day on the 26th for a trip that would span over an awesome Memorial Day Weekend and included seeing Champaign, Illinois' mighty Hum reunite at Millenium Park as well as a night spent drinking too much Jonnie Walker Black poured down my throat by pleasant Chicago natives, which led to me getting lost alone and drunk in a not-so-nice Chicago neighborhood. Finally that evening after warding off an angry bum I managed to find a little Chicago club called Metal Shaker and met Steve from the mid-fi psychedelic and black metal influenced doomers The Atlas Moth. Steve was hosting and had put together an awesome noise show that included the forceful Timothy C. Holehouse, Neil Jendon and the captivating ghosts amidst white noise sounds of A Second Heart. I got to meet one of the dudes from the awesome Plague Bringer and most of the other artists performing at that show and mention it because it was inspiring to see it start out in New York and then also see some of the unorthodox and rad underground stuff happening in Chicago. Yay, underground! Keep it up! Kudos.

Anyhow, before all that noise happened (no pun intended), I spent the first night of my trip watching Union Pool shake to the crashing auditory tides of the rescheduled Jarboe show. I felt like such a lucky boy to get to start my trip in this amazing way! The show had been rescheduled because Jarboe and other band members had been trapped by the overseas volcanic ash incident back when the original date was set in April. It was Jarboe's only North American appearance with the 2010 European tour line-up that featured members of Batillus, Hull, and also the amazing Cobalt (who I'm just getting into and whose records I desperately need to go purchase immediately before I feel "false"). I am glad the volcano erupted because it fit my schedule perfectly! Is that wrong?

Openers Bezoar are a power trio with punch. Hearing them is kind of like being on the receiving end of The Thing's fist after he yells, "It's clobberin' time!" Any dorks still reading this after I said that may care to know that Bezoar totally rule. Coming off like a cross of Earthride meets the more psychedelic and majestic side of Cathedral crossed with The Mamas and The Papas or something, this Brooklyn band had a set that I enjoyed nearly as much as Jarboe's. Guitarist Tyler Villard is versatile and capable of filling the room without a second guitar, thanks to his "grim so good" tone and the supportive and rolling tumult of bassist Sara Palmquist. Palmquist is also the band's vocalist and her pipes are powerful! They have a great 7" out and deserve to make a big splash in the sludgy/stoney scene, where I guess they have been soldiering for a few years. New drummer Justin Sherrell was a hairy maniac and I was especially impressed by how tight the band was yet full of feel. Villard holds back the solos but when he lets them rip it is good and worth it and you wish there were a few more. Is that Garry Jennings son? You will believe.

Hull are a good band and I was especially into the aggressive and precise drumming. They sat a bit too close to Neurosis in sound for me. While they clearly have some mutual friends and I love Neurosis, I find that many of the bands that are influenced by them are much less startling and captivating. I don't mean to sound too harsh, as Hull is very solid and good at what they do. I am planning to check out their The End records release very soon and give it a fair spin, but I am more excited about the Enemy Of The Sun re-release. Still, if you like that awesome and punishing style of slow burn music, you may very well dig these guys a lot. They put on a passionate set and were solid, but I'd rather have heard NeurIsis influenced stuff like Cult Of Luna or Giant Squid that has taken the influence and moved much more firmly into their own brilliant territories as well. Bezoar may have been much more within the stoner/hard rock tradition, which has also been done a lot, but I found them more to my liking overall.

Jarboe took the stage to swirling, synthed out tribal sounds, wearing a stark dress. She really does have a sort of elemental banshee aura. Jarboe pulls the energy of a room inward to her, sort of channels it and turns it inside out. Depending on her energy, she can leave you feeling kind of breathless like in the aftermath of a storm or make you feel like you've worked out the demons. The set was mainly heavier renditions of some of her material across the years, with a more ominous and electric "Mother/Father" from Swans' The Great Annihilator release and a tremendous and wailing "Ascend" from the epic mind-scourging Mahakali release being the highlights of the evening in my book.

Fade Kainer, formerly of Still Life Decay and currently of industrial metal tribalists Inswarm and NYC's premier charred doom warriors Batillus, had great stage presence (though anyone that tall with such long dreads probably would). Kainer's involvement in Jarboe has been cool because he really brings a sense of craft to any musical project he is involved with and yet works with each group he's in sonically towards the goal of creating a powerful sum of various parts.

I love how Jarboe can be so commanding and iconic and unapproachable seeming on stage one minute and then melt offstage into the audience and make it feel like group participation as the crowd gathers around her in awe. I feel like she is the Oracle of Delphi or something. I would love to see her perform a really mellow set sometime as well, especially anything from her very melodic CDR release Skullgirl (one of my very favorite things she's ever released that I must recommend to everyone). The bombast was awesome too, of course. The crescendo of Jarboe and this touring line-up rose up to an almost physical peak, like a windstorm made of flailing limbs and rich, dark, moans.

Magical nights like this are why I will always endure cramped bus rides full of Russians loudly screaming into phones and crying babies or barely eat for two weeks to be able to afford to fly someplace cool to see my favorite grimy or glamorous rock heroes play. While it is debatable, we may only live once and there are some things that are worth enduring any temporary discomfort to experience.