Before E. Sixth rose up to rival both its west side progenitor and the post-war chitlin’ circuit as Austin’s preeminent music district, there was the North Door. Located on the same block as Encore Records and three minutes from CiT headquarters at 1100 E. Fifth, its roomy ambiance turned into an empty threat Friday for local earth shakers Same Sac.
Where Thursday’s deserted rap showcase might be put down to Austin’s relative indifference to hip-hop, last night’s non-throng of 16 people for a homegrown trio of demolition experts felt less like the outright insult of the day before and more like wanton disregard.
A steady flow of Bolt Thrower trolls streamed past the North Door as if it was an invisible homeless person. Inside, us handful of crickets clustered by the bar and braved the stage front to weather Same Sac’s sonic sundering. Non-attendance was everyone else’s loss. And don’t make the same mistake twice, either: Same Sac returns to the North Door tonight, 9:45pm.
Drummer King Coffey, guitarist Craig Clouse, and bassist Matt Turner paid little heed to the sparse gathering other than waiting an additional 15 minutes to start their 11pm set. Once they materialized from the venue’s outside patio, they soundtracked the inner space with the sound of a building being brought down.
A giant screen on one wall running an Asian zombie flick, an empty balcony overlook, and the square, high-ceiling room with a rounded stage space welcomed four more folks for a total of 20 by the time the local threesome fissioned its doom tempos, deafening volume, and a deadly sludge undertow.
The Butthole Surfers’ legendary beatman wore a beatific half smile, half-grimace as he pounded the apocalypse, with the rhythm section assuming avalanche proportions 20 minutes in as Clouse made seasick slide runs up and down the neck of his instrument. Bang the drum slowly, excoriate the six-string with extreme prejudice.
The trio’s titanic current lurched and occasional leaped, barely stopping between songs, and at the point which Same Sac assumed a molten flow a half-hour in, they were done. Bolt Thrower then cracked the Earth, but they did so after Same Sac got the magma running.
This article appears in May 31 • 2013.
