I saw an excellent Halloween show last night at the Hideout... Bloodiest, Rabid Rabbit, Grief (!), and Indian. Bloodiest was made up of numerous guys from the local bar, metal and (post) rock scenes (Sterling, Yakuza, etc.) and when I arrived, they were easing into a long and appropriately atmospheric piece that slowly yielded epic black metal of the "In the Nightside Eclipse" variety. Pretty surprising. Rabid Rabbit was next and I could probably just write about their messed up costumes if I did not feel like mentioning how massive their sound was. The doom had begun, indeed. Disorienting psychedelic heaviness. Go Garfield Park! Grief was up third and the cult Boston sludge band played a satisfyingly full set of pummeling tracks... oddly, in my mind, they could have slowed it down a bit... but it was like the adrenalin was flowing too hard, or something. Indian capped off the night as an appropriate follow-up, laying down one raging song after another. It ain't pretty... like a heavier High on Fire without the "catchiness"... it had actually been a while since I had seen/heard them and I was kind of caught off-guard by just how intense their set was. Rough... as in someone may get hurt. Kevin Drumm was DJing in between sets, and he generally chose to keep the tempo a bit higher, in contrast to the bands. No surprise, I did not recognize half of what he played... Major kudos to Rabid Rabbit for getting Grief out to Chicago!
