BORIS WITH MICHIO KURIHARA EMPTY BOTTLE, SUN 9/30
Since their first record in ’96, Boris has developed a reputation among noiseheads, heavy-psych fiends, and doom-metal fans on the strength of several collaborations with Merzbow, a live album with Keiji Haino, and a talent for sculpting dense, sepulchral drones that can suspend you in space for 20 minutes at a time. Starting in 2001, Southern Lord reissued some of their heaviest discs–Absolutego, Amplifier Worship, Akuma no Uta–and the sizable cult who’ll buy anything that label puts out (guilty!) pushed the Boris buzz into the red even before the 2006 stateside release of Pink, their breakthrough record. If they keep this up, their sold-out show on Sunday with Kurihara–part of the Adventures in Modern Music festival, sponsored by British music mag the Wire–might end up being their last Chicago stop at a venue as small as the Empty Bottle.
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The last quarter of the set was pure power and glory, one long release of tension after the quiet, pulsing drama of the softer Rainbow songs–Atsuo took a break at the end of a monolithic rendition of “Just Abondoned My-Self” to surf the crowd. Boris finished with a punishing “Farewell” (also from Pink) and then, for an encore, pulled back again to let Wata sing, on a tune that sounded almost like a lullaby–provided you had your earplugs in.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Boris with Michio Kurihara, right by Marty Perez.
