Boris
Auditorium Shores, Saturday, March 17
Japan’s Boris communicates through a universal language of drone and destruction. Whereas their Friday showcase at Spiros Amphitheatre was an epic, abstract one-song suite whose peaks and valleys were simultaneously draining and revelatory, at Auditorium Shores the following afternoon, the trio expressed the full spectrum of last year’s brilliant Pink. With a calm, meditative manner, in front of her towering stack of Orange amplifiers, guitarist Wata ushered a tsunami of sound textures, beginning with the minimalist undertow of “Blackout” and “Woman on the Screen.” Balancing both necks of his dual guitar – heaven below, hell above – Takeshi ripped through Pink‘s more rousing numbers, including the LP’s namesake, “Electric,” and “Pseudo-Bread,” while Atsuo played the crowd as much as the drums, demanding a metallic roar in return for the apocalyptic gong. A fitting end to the band’s brief tenure in the States, Boris departed with “Farewell,” a shimmering and spiritual revelation expressed by weightless, shoegazed avant-metal. Nothing was lost in translation.
This article appears in March 23 • 2007.