We had acoustic, we had emo, we had metal, we had quirky pop, we had punk and we even had goth! A totally fun evening at The Underground – thanks to everyone who came and supported the bands!!
love Chris B xx

!slash!Sakura!slash! & motionfades
The combination of the shy motionfades (aka Mike) and confident !slash!Sakura!slash (aka Benson) was an interesting opening set for the Underground. !slash has a commanding stage presence and a voice that is almost feminine in it’s tonality and a rhythm & blues feel to his voice which is very pleasing. motionfades voice worked best on his pop number “Can I take you home” and later got the ahhs from the girls when he dedicated a song to his mother. Huge potential in motionfades and kudos to
!slash for sharing his slot with him. If you like acoustic music, these two are worth watching.
Mark Emerson

Slept in Spray
started out very slow, ambient, and spacey, slowly building up speed, as an accelerating spacecraft does. are we all alone? only deep in our music-inspired imaginations. a bit metroid-esque, i would only be moderately surprised to see samus make an appearance. so far it’s been a very trippy journey through otherworldly melodic noise. being instrumental, it’s a nice alternative to others’ typically mediocre vocals. throughout hard and soft phases, they always evoke a sense of exploratory wonder, like a kid first seeing disneyland for the first time, but in a spacey sense. the really slow parts are like a wordless really cool bedtime story. if you’re in the right mindset, it’s totally easy to get lost among the planets in this vacuous sea of wonderfully weird sound. my only complaint is that the fabulous journey was a bit short, i would have enjoyed them for hours.
Amos

 

Protoss
jumping instantly into meaty metal, my first impression is metallica without the orchestral element. a little unrefined and raw, but the attitude and noise level won’t leave metalheads wanting. listening to them is like walking on your tiptoes across a bed of blunted nails. not incisively sharp, but you can definitely feel every step. very full, rich sound without a strongly distinctive character, just all around dark chocolatey goodness (or badness, as the attitude may dictate).
Amos

Los en Found
very difficult to categorize, they’re somewhere in the middle of the triangle between rock, punk, and death metal. a lot like some of the modern rock played on seattle college radio stations Very appealing to today’s anarchist, they clearly want to blast some holes in otherwise functional concrete walls. if you’re angry about anything but are generally optimistic and rebellious in character, they’re for you. i can’t quite decide whether they’re more like a spanking or a slap in the face, but it’s ok. brief interludes of death screaming between being stung with rock nettles, most notably “devil’s club”. deeply satisfying if you’ve got a bone to pick with the world in general. they’re more of a determined and forceful type of opposition, rather than punk which doesn’t care if you’re with them or not.
Amos

218
instant hardcore punk, like putting one of those dinosaur capsules into water. no breaking into it, no slow songs to start, just instant gratifying full speed punk. if you’re totally ready for record speeds down the interstate highway, they’re just what the doctor of motor vehicles would prescribe. imagine green day, but double or triple the intensity, with just enough reggae/ska to make you order a pina colada with an extra shot. i don’t know how the drummer handles the near-ultrasonic speeds with such precision, but he does. if any band were to be a musical representative of adenosine triphosphate (google it), it would be these guys.
Amos

The Racket
halfway between rock and funk, the racket leaves you wondering just what they are and what their message is. just about any moderately dissatisfied agenda would fit there style. i get the feeling of mistrust and uncertainty, encapsulated in a desire to do something, but not quite sure what. it’s hard to fully appreciate them as a whole, but they’re doubtlessly trying. a little more testosterone and/or sense of purpose would take them a long way. they’re definitely good at what they do, but just what it is remains a bit of an unsolved mystery.
Amos
Much appreciated the freshness of this band and the effort they put into a stage show with band painted Tshirts and props on stage. They were having a great time on stage which made me enjoy their set. Definitely worth checking out.
Mark Emerson

Embryo
even during their warmup, before they start, i’m filled with warm meaty metal expectations. Embryo really satisfies. i don’t know whether i’m particularly blood-thirsty or if embryo is just what the doctor ordered, but either way it’s good stuff. a bit incoherent, but they provide a primal sense of domination few others can match. very few homo sapiens indeed would choose to stand up against such masters of authority, as if they did, absolute decimation would shortly ensue.
Amos

HeadHunter
the vocals seem a bit out of place in what could otherwise be the soundtrack to a futuristic movie, but if you’ve ever fantasized about being in a futuristic bar depicted in experimental sci-fi movies, fantasize no more. headhunter is about as fucked up as you could possibly get, in every sense of the word, and it’s a very good thing. if you’re at all bored (with music or life in general), headhunter will connect you with a thousand years into the future and make you think you’re more than you are. and, i am not exaggerating in any way about this. breaking free from any and all preconceived notions of what music should be like (and sexuality as well), they are a huge breath of fresh amorphous air, or maybe it’s cyanide? i can’t tell at this point, it’s all good. if their style became commonplace, i would be in a cinematic technocrat heaven. even the most searing punk can’t come close to their counterculture imperative. the hard-hitting industrial machines definitely surpass the force of any man-made sound.
Amos

Above photos © Copyright 2007 by Willem Van Der Merwe
Poster by Sheli