North Baltimore Concerts Offer Everything from Gloom Metal to Pop Punk

Well it has been two weeks since Death Fest, and in those two weeks I have given myself a small respite from metal. That rest is over. This Friday at Ottobar drone metal will pour out of Sunn amps in an echoing wave when Earth takes the stage.

It has been years since I listened to Earth, and with Baltimore’s resident downbeat doom metal band Oak opening, I will know exactly what to expect. A lot of synonyms of the word “down” spring to mind.

Formed in 1989 by Dylan Carlson, Slim Moon and Greg Baboir, Earth was an experimental doom metal band, taking repetitive, heavy, low, downbeats and dragging them out for entire songs. Earth is influenced by the Melvins, and it’s evident that these two bands came from the same time and place. Something was going on in Seattle in the early to mid 1980s, and for most people it sounded like the soundtrack to a nightmare. For a handful of people, however, the repeated heaviness was a primal call, and drone metal was born.

Carlson would later become famous for something much more tragic and macabre than doom metal. He was best friends with Kurt Cobain. Their friendship was cemented by their love of the Melvins, Puget Sound, and an amazing version of “Divine and Bright” that Cobain sang lead vocals on. Carlson also bought the gun that Cobain later used to kill himself.

Baltimore based Oak are some of the musicians that have been influenced by Earth. Their methodical, building style is clearly a descendant of Earth, and even Black Sabbath, though also decidedly their own. Their members even describe their sound as “painful” at times. 

Saturday night couldn’t be more different, though still thoroughly West Coast. Santa Cruz’s Swingin Utters play at 9 p.m. downstairs at the Ottobar. These guys share a sound with such bands as Screeching Weasel, AFI, and other assorted Fat Wreck Chords acts of the early 1990s. Poppy, catchy, fast, surf-y punk rock is their specialty, and if you go Saturday night you will get it in spades.

Don’t let the fact that the Iceage show at Golden West is on a Monday deter you from attending. In fact, it should be a selling point. What better way to end your Monday than with dark, bordering on ultra violent, teenage Danish post punk? Their album New Brigade has everyone from Pitchfork to MRR to Vice foaming at the mouth. Throw in Give and Death Domain, and it’s almost compulsory that you attend.

If that’s not enough to keep you busy:

• At 7 p.m., on Tuesday, at CCAS; Mob Mentality, Twitching Tongues, Soul Search, Minus, and Expire.
• At 9 p.m. on Saturday, at the Hexagon; Trashkanistan, Like Patterns, Thundersnow, and Pipe Smoking Rabbits.