Stebmo (Steve
Moore), Earth
No Fun, 11.8.25
On a random October evening, I was browsing shows to go to for November. Word hadn't got out about Earth playing in Troy, but I suppose I'm too young to really enjoy the band, so no one within my circle caught wind of it, nor really cared.
There hasn't been a lot of notable shows in the area. To be fair, I relegated myself last year to mostly going to hardcore shows as that was what my friends typically did. There certainly is a sense of adrenaline you get, however, I wasn't really enjoying the music. I enjoy a bit of metalcore and hardcore myself, but to say the scene is rather over-saturated with hardcore is probably a mild overstatement, but that's just how I feel. I kinda felt out of it after the Horse Grave show I went to a year ago after getting socked in the face rather hard. Yeah, it's a given that at a hardcore show there is always a non-zero chance that you're gonna get hurt, but I'm holding a camera! Honestly that's the least of my concern. If I had my Tokina (fully metal lens) and still had my 5D (a literal weapon that will still be intact even if bumped into) I'd be fine.
Moving forward, I decided to seek the shows out I used to go to two years ago. The odd alternative acts. The stuff that sticks out like a sore thumb. With the new No Fun ownership, that was a little tough, since No Fun is beginning to prioritize bar night events like movie nights once a week, dance nights, DJ sets. Respectfully, not my thing (although I did go to one movie night to watch Twin Peaks with my ex-girlfriend), but I won't shame. They can be enjoyable, but I cannot lie, with No Fun being the only legitimate and viable venue in the area that isn't Empire (FUCK EMPIRE, but that's a story for another time) or a random house show (which I enjoy on occasion), shows are getting narrowed in the area. Most alternative venues like Ophelia's and the Albany Social Justice Center prioritize hardcore acts so that's dead in the water (no shame, they're both great venues).
Seeing the Earth show on No Fun's website shook me. How the fuck did they book them? Is it sold out? Nope. It wasn't sold out. However, it was almost sold out. I fought tooth-and-nail to make the Eventbrite site simply allow me to buy a ticket. And just like that... Secured. This particular season for No Fun has had rather famed lineups, with J Mascis booked the week after this show on November 15th, and Blood Lemon having come 3 days before this show, on November 5th.
I know I don't typically provide context for most of these shows, since I feel like it makes reading my write-ups more fun, but to give some heavily abridged context about Earth--
Earth is a post-rock and drone metal band started in Seattle by Dylan Carlson 1989. Ending the band 1997 after Carlson's personal struggles, the band started back up in 2003 with drummer Adrienne Davies. Bands like Sun O))) and Boris were inspired by some of Carlson's work in Earth,
Earth is seen as a god-like band within the sphere drone, ambient, and post-rock as a whole (my favorite genre). I have Earth's first two albums in my collection and have played through them. Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version is probably an easy favorite of mine, a special tribute to what is drone and what drone is. Playing back Teeth of Lion Rule the Divine to people is by far my most favorite way of expressing, "Yeah, this is the stuff I listen to."
One of the first albums Earth released upon reforming was Hex; or Printing in the Infernal Method, which hit record shops in September of 2005. Interestingly enough, the tone of this album loosely reflects how Carlson's previous works in Earth sounded, with Hex taking on an Americana and post-rock adjacent approach. The show coming up is actually a part of a tour Earth will be taking on for the 20th anniversary of the album-- a full playthrough of the album, without breaks. One of the other special aspects of this show was that I was approached by the No Fun in-house A/V guy, offered to shoot video the show. I, of course, took on this offer... A chance to document
November 8th arrives. I ready my gear (an HVR Z1U and DVX100) in my massive camcorder bag, and leave to go to the venue right at doors, anticipating a crowd. When I arrive, it's of course just me and the sound guy, but later on fills up. I kill time by getting a hot dog, washing it down with a Miller Lite, and attempting to cooperate with the other 4 guys getting video of the set so I don't get in anyone else's way (despite me having the most authority on the matter because I was one of the video guys with direct permission from the band and the venue).
Stebmo
Stebmo is the first act of the night. Think of it somewhat like experimental ambient synth music. Stebmo is the pseudonym of Steve Moore, the horn player of Earth. I enjoyed how he made it a sort of lecture on resonance and rhythm and how we condition ourselves to think of music in terms of octaves. I felt very at peace during his performance, it's hard to describe it.
Stebmo eased out with an ambient sonata on his electric piano, closing out after he lectured us on why octaves and chords technically don't exist since they're purely human cognition, something along those lines.
After a 30 minute break after Stebmo, Earth was ready to play. Dylan Carlson, Steve Moore, , Adrienne Davies, and Brett Nelson (ex Built to Spill) joined the stage after a rather lengthy soundcheck. The venue began to get filled again, and a rather quiet anticipation fell on the crowd. It's a feeling not quite felt at most shows.
One of the other things I experienced at not too many other shows was the amount of people recording this show. I spoke to this really nice guy from New Jersey who had a cheap JVC HD camcorder who used to record lots of DIY shows back in the 90s-00s who still had his master tapes. I met this other guy bootlegging the show (very boldly, mind you) without the venue's permission and to the dismay of the sound engineer. He, quite literally, plopped his Zoom F6 and condenser microphone right in front of Carlson. While he did get permission from Earth to tape the performance, you gotta ask permission from the venue since it interferes with any setups already in place for the band. I tried to have a conversation with him, but he came off as mildly abrasive while still trying to be somewhat respectful.
Getting back to the perfomance...
Dylan Carlson greeted the crowd to an ovation, thanking everyone for seeing them tonight. Without much time after that, they immediately got into playing Hex.
How I can truly describe this music is moving in every best imaginable way. The album in and of itself is already a beautiful piece of drone and post-rock, but you tack onto that a live aspect that's not often seen and you get this amazingly moving piece of art witnessed before you. It's important to note that this album is an important mark of direction change for the band, easing out of doom metal, and into a more country/americana/post-rock like influence. You could still hear those heavy riffs and massive walls of reverb, but they're under-toned with acoustic instruments, diverse percussion, and an overall clean sound. It's like soft drone, if that makes sense.
The whole band had this unattainable chemistry between each other that not many bands had. I did hear from the soundguy that Adrienne and Dylan were somewhat abrasive to one another during soundcheck since Adrienne wanted a very specific drum sound that took 2 hours, and Dylan was kind of like "hurry up!" but during the performance you couldn't really see that.
Dylan's style as a lead is very subdued. He does lead, it's just with this conducter-style approach where the band sort-of acts as a consequence to how Dylan wants to take the performance.
Adrienne Davies
Adrienne's drumming style is one you don't see that much -- perfectly slow and rhythmic. It is unimaginably hard to play drums that slow on perfect tempo, but somehow, Adrienne could do it damn near perfectly. Insanely talented.
Brett Nelson plays almost as if he's been with the band since the start. Owing to his past in Built to Spill, he's a great guitarist. I was taken by surprise at the sight of him performing since he was accredited on one of my most meaningful and favorite albums, Built to Spill's 1994 album There's Nothing Wrong with Love.
Brett's way of playing with Earth wasn't actually heard on the album, it was almost like a new addition to how the album sounds. He provided very droney and angular riffs and kept a good rhythm with how Dylan played.
It's important to note that Steve has been playing with Earth since 2005 and was accredited on Hex. If you watch any Earth performance after 2005 on YouTube, he's usually playing with the band, so this was expected for this album playthrough. I think him alone is what majorly contributed to Earth's change in sound, providing a droning trombone backdrop.
There was also the bassist there. He isn't apparently a permanent member of the band, but I still wanted to leave credit to him. I couldn't seem to find his name anywhere on the web.
Midway through it all, I caught myself getting very emotional at the soundscape before me. I think it felt liberating to hear something that truly, sonically resonated with me after going to many shows I didn't care much about. I may haven't seen one of my all-time favorite bands, but this type of post-rock is deeply tied to my overarching music taste.
The show ended with a song from the new album Earth will be releasing soon. Very refreshing to hear new material from constantly evolving musicians.
After the show wrapped up, cheers were had, and Dylan brought up how much he enjoyed playing tonight in Troy and how appreciative he is for the audience. It's always nice to hear artists that I highly enjoy singing praises at the ends of shows.
As for the footage, though, I regret to inform that it probably didn't come out that well. Any normal instance of doing work like this involves a tripod, since my Z1U is a very heavy camcorder. I had to handhold it since the venue is packed, and thus, my arms and back got incredibly ached. Most of the HD footage is just me swaying back and forth to put pressure on one foot at a time and alleviate any stress on my back. I switched between my DVX100 whenever my arm got tired, running on SCENE ADV to get some cinematic shots while giving it a good SD look. The DVX100 shots looked good since it isn't a super heavy camcorder. I don't know how much the A/V plans to use my footage, but I hope it's kind of worth it since it is totally free. I might have to buy one of those $150 procam shoulder mount mods for my Z1U.
I also think the video came out bad due to me being rather entranced by their set. At the end of the day, I was their mostly for the show. documenting it was mostly an afterthought.
It's worth noting that my videography setup isn't solely like this because of my love for old DV systems... It's also because I'm broke. Me purchasing that Z1U was my attempt to try and get something relatively modern by moving into the HD sphere.
The memory of this show will live on in my head, to me being one of those shows I just can't forget every aspect of. Soul healing.
