King Buffalo – Page 2 – 7th Level Music

Top 15 live shows of 2021: #’s 15 – 11

Live shows made a comeback in 2021, thank heavens, but many were still canceled or postponed due to the ongoing pandemic. As a result, I only saw 35 live bands this year. Cutting that list in half (or thereabouts) to save time, here’s the start of my top fifteen concerts of 2021.

#15: Acid Dad – Ft. Wayne, Indiana’s Brass Rail – October 08th

I’d only heard a couple tracks by Acid Dad before seeing them live, and they didn’t fail to impress everyone at the Brass Rail. It was a rocking show of groovy psych-rock with hints of surf and garage rock.

#14: Protomartyr – Kalamazoo, Michigan’s Bell’s Eccentric Café – November 12th

This was the first time I’d seen Protomartyr live as well, and it was a fine show indeed with a ton of great post-punk rock in front of an excited crowd of fellow Michiganders.

#13: Stöner – Ft. Wayne, Indiana’s Piere’s – September 29th

This was two firsts in one, both seeing and hearing Stöner for the first time. They played a cool heavy set of desert rock and won over a lot of fans (including yours truly) at this show. Their shirts and LPs were flying off their merch table after their set.

#12: King Buffalo – Ft. Wayne, Indiana’s Piere’s – September 29th

Yes, the same show. King Buffalo were the first of three bands that night (the third being Clutch). I’d heard of King Buffalo before, but only a couple songs. They played an excellent set of psychedelic rock that set the table for the rest of the night.

#11: All Them Witches – Chicago’s Metro – December 16th

This was the last show I saw in 2021, and ATW put on a solid set of heavy psychedelia. It was the last show of their tour before a break until they played a series of shows around New Year’s Eve.

Who’s in the top ten? Come back tomorrow to learn!

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: King Buffalo – Orion (2015)

Orion, the first album from Rochester, New York’s psych-space-doom trio King Buffalo is a stunning debut. The album covers a lot of ground…in outer space, along misty mountain paths, and across desert plains.

The title track opens the album with David Gilmour-like guitar from Sean McVay and builds to a thundering echo rolling down from a lost Greek temple high on a hilltop. McVay’s guitar becomes the Silver Surfer racing across the cosmos while Dan Reynolds‘ bass and Scott Donaldson‘s drums are the engines of Galactus’ ship behind him.

“Monolith” adds some Velvet Underground guitar styling to their repertoire while McVay sings about cosmic things that cause more fascination than fear. It drifts (melts?) right into “Sleeps on a Vine,” a song about a mysterious woman who may or may not be real. Donaldson’s beats almost take the forefront through the whole track, becoming the heartbeat of the man intrigued by the woman (mirage?). It becomes a heavy jam not unlike some All Them Witches tracks, which is no surprise as the bands are friends and ATW is even thanked in the liner notes of the album.

Reynolds’ bass gets “Kerosene” off to a groovy start, and McVay’s guitar sounds like a distant calling vulture at some points in it. Other times, it sounds like a nest of yellowjackets. “Down from Sky” has a countrified sound, complete with slide guitar, setting up the mammoth sounds of the next two tracks – “Goliath” (parts one, the instrumental track, and two, the mind-blowing rocker that opens your eyes and melts your face).

Reynolds and Donaldson hit their instruments so fiercely in spots during “Orion Subsiding” that it sounds like they might break. The album ends with the mind-expanding “Drinking from the River Rising.”

It’s a powerful debut, making you want to track down everything else they have out there. Cosmic rock like this is always fascinating, and King Buffalo do it well.

Keep your mind open.

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Live: Clutch, Stöner, King Buffalo – Piere’s – Ft. Wayne, IN – September 29, 2021

It’s always good to see Clutch. They never disappoint and always sound great live, so seeing them at a small venue just over an hour’s drive from my house was an easy decision. They’re on their thirtieth year as a band, which is quite impressive.

Opening for them were two other bands I was keen on catching, and the first was King Buffalo, who opened the night with a fine set of space / psych doom rock that was just what I needed after a weird day at work. There weren’t many in the crowd who’d heard of them before, but their merch table was packed immediately after their set. They won over a lot of fans. It would be great to see them on their own.

Up next were desert / stoner rock power trio Stöner, who were equally impressive with heavy bass, garage-psych drums, and cosmic fuzz guitar work. My wife was happy to hear them and understand their lyrics (topics ranging from ghosts to Evel Knievel). They also won over many fans in Ft. Wayne.

Stöner pummeling the crowd with heavy rock.

Clutch came out to a crowd that was, by now, fired up from seeing two bands that were alone worth the price of admission. They launched into a wild set, showing no rust at thirty years of age as a band. Among the highlights of the set were them playing “Far Country” from their first 7″ single back in 1991 and “Passive Restraints” (another early track). Another treat was a new single, the name of which I still can’t find, that has lyrics involving witchcraft, the Mayflower, and Nosferatu.

Clutch hitting it hard after almost two years off.

We overheard a guy on the way out telling his friend that he’d seen Clutch “twenty times” and “that’s probably in the top five” of shows he’d seen. It was a good one. All three bands were hungry for the stage and the energy gained from a live crowd. I certainly needed it, and I got it in spades.

Keep your mind open.

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