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*joke about the french* - 84%
The Neurosis live experience is an immersive and overwhelming one. The band plays at crushing volumes in bleakly light surroundings while projections of haunting artwork flicker in the background. Where many live acts are forced to engage their audience in trite and gimmicky crowd participation antics or rock star clichés, Neurosis merely need to plug in, tune up, and DESTROY. No stage banter, no call and response, just a crushing and all encompassing atmosphere. The audience does not give energy to the performance; they simply gape in awe and suffer an hour long beating.
This particular bootleg was recorded during the tour for Times of Grace, Neurosis’s last true “heavy” album and as such half of the material here focuses on that album. Though the set list relies heavily on the claustrophobic and furious sludge metal of Neurosis’s middle period with fan favorites such as “The Doorway” or “Locust Star”, Neurosis also indulge in some more introspective material that would become their focus in the coming years. The first half of the set pummels the listener with riff after monolithic riff. “The Doorway” especially proves itself to be deadly potent in the live setting. The second half of the set begins with the haunting and hypnotic “Away” a song that demonstrates the growing ability of the band to manipulate tension and atmosphere using as little volume as possible. This is followed by an explosive rendition of “Locust Star”, which at 7 minutes feels oddly brief in this context. Finally Neurosis ends the concert with an appropriately epic performance of “Times of Grace.”
The songs aren’t all that different from their studio versions, which isn’t very surprising considering the live approach Neurosis use in the studio. While the performances are spot on, the production on this recording is definitely bootleg quality. The guitars sound huge enough, but the vocals drift in and out of the mix and the drums are very flat and dry. The recording has however perfectly captured the live sound of the keyboards and samples Neurosis use. Keyboards squeal and rumble across all of the tracks bringing some of the more subtle elements of the Neurosis sound to the forefront.
To this day there exists no accurate replacement for seeing this band live in concert but this bootleg does its best job. It serves as a documentation of the band right before they changed styles and serves to jog the memory of those who have seen the band live before. This is not a very good place to start for those unfamiliar with the Neurosis brand of atmospheric sludge metal from beyond the confines of reality, but for the avid collector it’s a nice addition.
