SXSW 2010: Salome, Torche, High On Fire Smoke Up Austin
Yesterday I saw 12 metal bands before High On Fire hopped onto the outdoor stage at the Mohawk sometime around midnight to make it a perfect baker’s dozen. A few of those were a lot of fun — Chicago’s upswinging Atlas Moth and their three-guitar tapestries (and beer-buzzed banter), frontwoman Grace Perry’s afternoon pit-initiating for thrashing Arizona death crew Landmine Marathon, rugged Indiana meat ‘n’ potato ‘n’ Conan the Barbarian heroes Gates Of Slumber, a muted and foggy Zoroaster with their new weird punker take on crusty and craggy snake-charming doom — and others great — post-pizza parlor bubblegum sludge trio Torche (using a borrowed drummer) and the always dependably compelling Virginians Salome with drummer Aaron Deal in an especially chatty mood in his quest for getting “smoked up” — but nobody commanded then decimated the crowd like Matt Pike, Jeff Matz, and Des Kensel. A true “power trio,” High On Fire’s muscular, chipped-tooth post-Motörhead stoner anthems get heavier and fuller each time I see them. Their songs have also grown increasingly well-crafted, from 2000’s The Art Of Self-Defense to the present. Which is maybe why their Snakes For The Divine-spotted set at Mohawk was the best of I’ve witnessed.
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