Rooster's Roadhouse, Alameda -- The mysterious “special guests” listed on the playbill for the Silence Chair/Flesh Assembly album releases show happened to be Alameda favorites Age of Aggression. Age of Aggression’s performance was on par with the band’s usual gritty and provocative shows. The pit was non-existent for two songs and then exploded on the third. Referring to Valentine’s Day as “Black Monday”, Will Johnson introduced the finger-exhaustingly accurate “Self-Perpetuated Suffering” which will make its’ way onto Age of Aggression’s next album. “Welcome” rounded out the set, closing with that sound reminiscent of Molotov and co-vocalist Roger Guill’s facial inflections lending to the intensity.

Striktnyne caught me by surprise, as they

Striktnyne’s Kris Keene at Rooster's Roadhouse

played their set with such significantly tighter musicianship than I remember from the last occasion on which I heard them that I was having trouble realizing that these were the same songs I’d heard before. Apparently they aren’t Powerslave’s sacred cow band for nothing. In any case, because Striktnyne was having one of those shows that allows the audience to hear them at their best, the subtleties of their music came together -- the syncopation, the melodic tensions, the influences old and new from Pantera to Bodom. Furthermore, their set was a smooth addition to Age of Aggression -- neither one overshadowed the other -- and the similar flavors of both bands as well as their individual quirks, such as Age of Aggression’s Rock en Espanol references or Striktnyne’s use of melodic minor keys, are offset well by the combination.

Flesh Assembly played live somewhat like Eric Murder (formerly of Habitual Murder) or Phil Anselmo fronting Bleach-era Nirvana, assuming one or the other of them swallowed Kid Rock and kept belching up pieces of him during the verses. Like openers Age of Aggression, there’s a similar gritty intensity to Flesh Assembly’s set, which once again caused the lineup to feel well put together. The hip-hop influence is not quite the twin of that of Age of Aggression, but is definitely there, especially rhythmically in the catchiness of the drumlines. These drumlines are so solid they could be sampled for electronica songs and not sound out of place, with the right producer. It seems that everyone in the band excluding the drummer sings a major vocal line at some point during the set, despite having John Garcia whose delegation is lead vocalist. As a result, there are at least 3 flavors of scream, much like with 100 Suns with about a similar heaviness but more hip-hop. Flesh Assembly puts on a high-caliber set with a professional but non-glossy intensity. Yet just when the intensity-level of the show seemed to have peaked:

During Silence Chair’s setup, there started to be activity behind this large black plastic tarp that had been tacked up to the south wall and had previously lain dormant. The crowd turned to watch the number of people traversing the plastic barrier until the set commenced with the dropping of this curtain. Beneath the tarp, there was about an 8-foot gallows set up, including heavy rope with noose pre-tied. When the tarp was dropped, the crowd was presented with the image of Silence Chair drummer-frontman Sticks suspended from the noose. Sticks hangs there, completely still, excluding the signature detail of many a Baudelaire poem: the tiniest swaying of the rope under the weight of a body. It can be argued, that

Silence Chair drummer-frontman Sticks

nothing’s shocking anymore; however, this spectacle of an opener for Silence Chair sets a definitive tone to the set that will follow, if nothing else. Sticks walks on, smothered in white face makeup, chains and top hat and takes a seat behind the drum kit.

There’s a certain early Marilyn Manson feel that surfaces with the twisted Alice in Wonderland mad hatter references and a “Smells Like Children” sort of sound at times. More predominantly there’s a Slipknot hip-hop feel. Because the frontman plays drums, rhythmic shifts are seamless and carry a lot of weight in the overall construction of each piece. Songs like “Demonlicious” step back from the hip-hop a bit and tend towards long dramatic interludes of swinging strokes by guitarist Wes slower than Slash solos but with similar tension and release tactics. “Stripped of my Honor” places Sticks doing his own echoes of the title phrase with an eerie Cobain-like quality. Flesh Assembly has a similar timbre and that same uneasy frequency to their set, although Sticks of Silence Chair takes a different approach in the layout of the set and the spectacular antics one would expect of a major label band with significantly more money behind them in order to develop this level of stage persona and atmosphere to the set.

The sheer number of echoes of similar influences created such a resonance with each band that played, which left room for contrast that made each band’s individual sound pop into life—a superb lineup.

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