Elephants Of Scotland And Brave The Vertigo At Nectar’s For Metal Monday March 30, 2015
Words by Tim Lewis.
It was a cool and misty evening when I walked home just after 8. I settled in restlessly and never got the boots off the feet. I slid out the door and trudged downtown. The rain had stopped but the air was full of moisture as I walked into Nectar’s and said Hello to Matthew Bryan Hagen. The lightly full room of metal heads freely gave their attention to Elephants of Scotland as the opening keyboard salvo of Endless (pt1) announced the arrival of the heavy progressive rock the Elephants do so well. The song rolled through it’s changes, and there were huge cheers as the first part concluded and eased up into the beginning of part 2. Mousetrap followed with it’s stomping verses and bright chorus. It always takes me a few listens to get to know an Elephants song, so I had a bit of a better handle on The Sun Dripped Orphans And The Wizard’s Teapot, having seen them play it last Thursday. Its dense multi-sectional runs became more of whole as I began to understand how all the pieces fit together. As much as I love their past, I’m really excited for their future. They followed with a killer super heavy A Different Machine, then scared us with another new one called Counting On A Ghost. Like Teapot, I liked it a lot more the second time around, and liked it a lot the first time I saw it. As they were the opening band, they only had a short time, so they kicked the night with the beautiful and powerful interstellar cruise that is Starboard. It was stellar and the crowd was very appreciative.
Having not eaten since lunch, I grabbed some food in the break, which kept me there for the beginning of the next band, Brave the Vertigo. With two guitars, one of them singing, bass and drums, they lit into some heavy metal riffs. They had a bit of an Opeth feel when they varied songs from heavy to a more open acousticish sound, but after the Elephants careened through dozens of sections per song, Vertigo sounded a bit too straight forward. I hung out for four or five songs then took the long walk home. Puddles on the ground said it had recently rained, but I found a nice clear window for the walk. What a great night.
This post was originally published by Tim Lewis at his personal blog, https://timstriangletribune.wordpress.com.