Friday night was a very special night because Sleep made a long awaited return to touring and headlined a show at Metro. It was a three band bill where every band had something unique to offer.
First up was The Schizophonics. This trio played super high energy, fast rock and roll. Words can’t adequately describe the sheer amount of energy this band emitted from the stage, largely from the guitarist/vocalist. This guy must mainline speed before taking the stage, he never held still and was constantly running back and forth, jumping around in circles, doing splits in the air, spinning in the air, and sliding all over the place! It was exhausting trying to keep up with him and it was an amazing site to behold. What’s more is he never seems to miss a note while doing all of this! The band had a real MC5 vibe to them in their overall sound, and that’s a great thing. Fantastic performance and this is a must-see band!
Zombi was up next. This duo hails from Pittsburgh and were very interesting. They are an instrumental band that blended electronics with prog-rock. One guy played bass and had an array of keyboards and electronics, and the other guy played the drums. Their music was very unique and quite enjoyable. They played 40 minutes and won over a good segment of the crowd.
Next up was the mighty Sleep. The band went through a huge lineup change this year with 2/3 of the band departing, leaving bassist/vocalist Al Cisneros to assemble a new lineup. This new lineup put out the first new Sleep record in quite a few years and it was very divisive amongst Sleep fans. People either loved it, or declared “this isn’t Sleep”. I will say that the new album didn’t click with me at first, but after about a half dozen plays, it totally clicked with me and now I love it. While Sleep lost two beloved and legendary members, they gained two equally legendary musicians to the fold. Dale Crover is one of the greatest rock drummers and has been for the past few decades. Watching Dale play drums live is a show in itself, he’s amazing. Bubba Dupree is a DC hardcore legend, having been in Void, a band that was pretty influential on countless bands that followed. He later would go on to play with some pretty large acts here and there. Once you look past the fact that two of the key members of Sleep are gone and really take the time to digest the new record, you will see that this is still Sleep, and the two new members are a really good fit to continue on the band’s legacy. And that takes us to their performance.
The band took the stage to sounds of astronaut radio communication, took their respective places on the stage and tore right into “Holy Mountain”. This immediately answered the question of “will they play any older songs or just the new album material”, and man did it sound incredible. Everything about the live sound mix was perfect, it was super heavy, the drums hit you in the face, the vocals were at just the right level, and the guitars knocked you on your ass. For three guys who barely move on the stage while playing, they just blew the roof off the place with their special blend of super heavy stoner rock. People in the crowd weren’t just smiling because they were stoned, Sleep was delivering the goods.
The band followed it up with three songs from the new album, Hemispheres. All three sounded even heavier than their studio recordings, with “Have Spacesuit Will Travel being the standout gem, as it’s easily the best song on the album, but all three sounded great. They went back to Sleep’s Holy Mountain again to play “From Beyond” and again this new lineup more than did it justice. They played one more song from the new album before closing the night with an amazing rendition of “Dragonaut”, adding even more Holy Mountain love. It was a hell of a strong finish.
This new lineup of Sleep in a live setting should erase any naysayer’s about the quality of the band, they are an incredible live band and their performance was downright magical. If I had one criticism it was that they didn’t play “Marajuanaut’s Theme” as to me that is the best Sleep song ever recorded and how do you not play your best song? That’s a small gripe considering how many great songs the band has, and this performance was so good that them skipping my favorite song didn’t lessen my enjoyment of the evening one bit! If you are a Sleep fan, I urge you to go give this incarnation of the band a chance by seeing them play, I promise you that you’ll be more than impressed. I look forward to what the future has in store for these guys and hopefully they’ll return again soon!
