Baroness

Last night I saw Baroness for the third time at Center Stage.  That prior sentence is pretty awkward, isn’t it?  It implies I’ve seen them three times at that venue when in fact it was my first time seeing them at Center Stage, my third Baroness show overall.

The first time I saw them was in February of 2009 at the Scion Rock Fest after having missed or skipped several prior opportunities to see them.  That show was also my first time seeing Torche and Kylesa, both of whom have become fixtures on my iPod along with Baroness.  I blame that on my penchant for skipping opening acts and only arriving in time to see headliners.  Over the years I’ve seen my share of poor opening bands which has led me to skip those I don’t already know.  However, when I now consider the number of bands I should have been introduced to years before I eventually started listening to them, I suppose I should start seeing whole shows again.

The Baroness set at the Scion show was impressive.  I was convinced to buy their current album, the Red Album, and spent the next six months listening to it repeatedly.  There was more hardcore/post-hardcore in their sound than in other bands I listened to.  What sounds I often found off-putting from other bands, I found to be appealing in this band.  It inexplicably commanded more and more of my listening time.  When the Blue Record was released the following fall, I was ready for it.

There was a bit of a shift in the sound in Blue.  I described them at the time as the world’s only indie metal act: not an indie band trying to play metal but a metal band who took nods from contemporary indie tropes.  The album contained rock riffs played over disco beats and soaring, anthemic choruses atop melodic guitar lines.  These are sounds not often heard in the extreme music oeuvre.  Consider the song “The Sweetest Curse” which begins treading much of the same territory as Mastodon, only to veer in a decidedly indie direction about 1:40 into the song.  I found their sound refreshing, though it was puzzling for many audiences. 

Baroness found themselves alone playing a musical style that sat between two scenes.  No one knew where to book them.  They were often considered not metal enough for the metal scene, referred to derogatorily as “Mastodon-lite” on message boards across the internet.  When booked for summer festivals with a decidedly more indie slant, they were too heavy for the crowds.

The Blue Record has a very intimate association for me.  It came out right as my prior dog started to die.  I listened to the first half of that album repeatedly as I watched him waste away.  The album opener, “Bullshead Psalm” along with the despondent trio of “Steel That Sleeps the Eye,” “Swollen and Halo,” and “Ogeechee Hymnal” became my personal lament of his impending death.

Of course, the loss of my dog pales in comparison to the horrific event which struck the band last August.

Despite not quite fitting in, Baroness had built quite a following due to extensive touring between 2009’s Blue Record and the summer 2012 release of Yellow and Green.  Yellow and Green sold over twelve thousand units the first week of its release, the largest first week total ever by a Relapse artist.  Again, Baroness’ sound had evolved.  From the sludge of their initial EPs, through the hybrid southern rock and progressive sludge of the Red Album, and past the indie metal of the Blue Record, Baroness took things one step further.  They seem to have dropped the “metal” portion of indie metal, eschewing the crushing riffs and bellowed vocals of prior releases without losing any of the power in their delivery.

They began a European tour in August of 2012.  The day before their final performance in the UK, their tour bus was in an accident.  On a rainy day, the bus’ hydraulics failed, sending the band plummeting thirty feet from a viaduct.  While no one was killed in the accident, the band was left with broken bones and broken psyches.  The momentum they had gained, which was propelling them toward Mastodon-like popularity, was gone.  In the wake of the accident, drummer Allen Blickle and bassist Matt Maggioni left the band, leaving Pete Adams and John Baizley to soldier on alone. 

Neither the accident nor the departures of band members were able to stop Baroness for long.  This should not have come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the band’s music.  Despite the angry sludge of their early work and the maudlin passages on the Blue Record, there has always been something uplifting about Baroness’ music.  Even the aforementioned sorrowful trilogy of “Steel That Sleeps the Eye,” “Swollen and Halo,” and “Ogeechee Hymnal” is followed by the redemptive “Horse Called Golgatha,” a song which is capable of grabbing you by the hair of your chin and dragging you back to your feet. 

When I write, “hair of your chin,” I‘m not entirely sure I mean that metaphorically.  If you listen to Baroness, I think you may be required to grow a beard.  Ladies, I’m looking at you.

That’s why I was so grateful to get to see them last night, on one of the sixteen dates prior to their appearance at Bonnaroo; their tour before their tour.  They did not disappoint.  They stuck mostly to the two most recent releases, only playing “Isak” from the Red Album.  It made sense with the new line up, members unfamiliar with the older material.  This may well have been my introduction to the newer, wiser Baroness, no longer a sludge band.  Regardless, it was worth it just to see Adams and Baizley on stage performing again.  Their march to the top begins anew.

Every once in a while a band comes along that touches a person deeply, inspiring near devotion.  It’s a band you want to share with as many people as possible, hoping that they will find in it what you found in it.  For me Baroness is that band.  Often, I feel I haven’t done enough to promote this band.

I don’t know what you’re currently listening to, but you should add Baroness to the mix.