Boredoms

live  @ The Fonda March 16

**note: Yamantaka Eye has spelled his name various ways in the past: eYe, EyE, etc.

eYe – the shaman, the rain maker, the mad conductor – summoned his circle of drummers to bare two hours of sonic precipitation. And rain it did, like a storm approaching and then a crack of thunder, agitated guitars crying and three maniac drummers dropping a single thud on the toms. Silence. Then another heart dropping simultaneous pound on the toms. Silence. Hushed, the crowd waits.

Over two decades of existence and prolific sound making, Boredoms have been to the mouth of the volcano and they ain’t scared. Forged in Osaka, Japan in 1986 with a dada spirit, punk and free-jazz influences, and lady yelper Yoshimi on the mic, Boredoms tore a path that few bands have successfully followed.

I first heard Boredoms in a college 2-dimensional design class. My 60-something year old professor blasted it through the warehouse speakers undoubtedly seeking a reaction. Everyone looked at each other squirming in their chairs, mouths twisted sideways with vexation. I failed the class (I just couldn’t get up at 8am back then), but was surreptitiously turned onto one of the most influential noise rock bands in history.

Boredoms’ show at the Fonda, Sunday (March 16), was primitive and orchestral, physical and divine, an experience. Something was created that night never to be done quite the same way again. And that is the majesty of the Boredoms: embodying and invoking the innate, and giving significance to the innate urge to make noise.

Yamantaka eYe pouncing, contorting his body in mid-air, screaming indecipherable blurts and wails in the mic. Striking the necks of guitars that were stacked vertically upright on a stand. Bleeding every sound possible out of them. Striking them with sticks and objects and his hands, until the strings were breaking. Laying a thunderous background for the clamorous percussion section.

The band has consistently pushed the envelope ever progressing this thing we love called music. Free form. Rhythmic. Tribal. Ideas can expand infinitely even within a set of rules, and Boredoms prove there are no boundaries.

Photos & Review by............

Alisha Ways

Bringing you all the noise you haven’t heard, off the track corners of L.A. you haven’t seen, and stinging cool like you’ve never felt before. Alisha’s on the L.A. music beat like vibrations from a blasting amplifier and reporting it all straight to you.