Obscured by artificial clouds, the three members of Boris, and special guest Michio Kurihara, took the Mohawk stage the same way they had only eight months prior, but what transpired could not have been more contrary. Whereas October’s Roaring Silence Revue launched Pink’s pummeling psych-punk missiles and scanned the spectral brilliance of Rainbow, at one point even venturing into Kurihara’s Sunset Notes, last Saturday’s meltdown stuck predominately to the Japanese trio’s latest, Smile. The album is easily the band’s most expansive and melodic work to date, as evidenced by the opening, astral interpretation of PYG’s “Flower Sun Rain” and the heavy mettle missives “Buzz-In” and “Laser Beam.” Of course, reinvention is nothing new to Boris, and the hour-long set proved an insightful snapshot of the group at this particular moment in time, even if the sound wasn’t loud enough to match the magnitude of the band.
What made the venture truly remarkable, though, was hearing the way in which Kurihara sculpts Boris’ vision, adding peripheral echo guitar to the screaming tonal bliss of “Ka Re Ha Te Ta Sa Ki – No Ones Grieve” and piercing through the massive distortion of the closing, untitled drone. The trance-inducing extended intro to “Statement” leaned closer to the alternative version crafted by producer You Ishihara, while b-side “Floorshaker” more than lived up to its name with thick Lizzy guitar harmonies and a pulsing backbeat, over which double-necked guitarist Takeshi outlined the Boris experience in Japanese:
I found a ripped ear on the floor.
This must be yours.
I found the sand stained dark red,
But still you must be dancing.
This article appears in June 27 • 2008.