Set Aflame Credit: Photo by John Anderson

Metal vs. Indie

Emo’s, Jan. 2-3

Indie rock took its dirt nap around the time of Vampire Weekend’s second album. Austin metal hasn’t assumed that market share. Halfway through the outside bill on Sunday night at Emo’s, local Christian quartet the Brigade at least counted some of its own faithful, with metalcore as nondescript as singer Ian Harvey’s Converge hoodie peaking on closing mosher “We Should Only Be So Lucky.” Falsetta fared better, almost as many documentarians onstage as musicians, whose death metal still couldn’t outdo the locals’ use of an Eastbound & Down audio sample. Inside, Red River vets Jesus Christ Superfly augmented their Stooge-rock with an organist to garage-y effect. The headliners, Set Aflame (outside) and the Blind Pets (in): obnoxious come offensive (“faggot”) for the former metal sixpiece with a decent gallop, vocal defoliation, and undistinguished 2010 debut, Beheader. The latter cap city shag trio looked like the Kings of Leon, bottled some Black Keys, and stomped Mudhoney Camaro rock. Monday night inside, local foursome Wild America, in one of its last advertised gigs, bashed as hard, its late-1980s sloppy/tight SST rock crowding a roomful of eager mourners. Wild America’s 2010 vinyl EP, The Sea, promised much more than breaking up. Outside, homegrown metallurgy finally screamed básta with a torpedo triptych, jamming the improvisational psych fantastic of Tia Carrera into the instrumental safari of Eagle Claw. If early Mastodon was scored like a movie, Eagle Claw would win a Grammy. Top dogs Pack of Wolves set its black metal screech astride a NWOBHM tear and torpedoed it home. Draw.

This article appears in January 14 • 2011.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.