You could smell the assembled fans a block away from Great American Music Hall. Wafting cannabis fumes drifted down O’Farrell Street, unfazed by the competing stinks of traffic exhaust and downtown San Francisco. A quick step inside and the dimly lit hall swallows the chaos of the city outside in its somber décor. A fitting venue for tonight’s heavy bill. The virtuosity of the night’s musicians, the heaviness of the guitars, and the ornate scrollwork of Great American Music Hall lend credence to the idea of doom as Americana. A voice echoes out of the house system, addressing the crowd with an “All right you vagrants,” before pointing out the emergency exits. It’s an interesting assembly – more short haircuts and clean looks than I expected. Inevitably there’s a veritable ocean of patch covered jean jackets but they’re almost sterile in how well taken care of they are.
The screech of fuzz turns the crowd’s heads to the front as Ruby the Hatchet takes the stage. An eerie extended intro erupts into the strident riffage of “Pagan Ritual,” the third track off last year’s phenomenal Planetary Space Child. Jillian Taylor’s haunting vocals layer into the song effortlessly, echoed by the drummer Owen Stewart’s harmonizing. One of my favorite things about Ruby the Hatchet is how Jillian’s vocals fit seamlessly into their sound. She has some serious vocal chops, but rather than dominating the rest of the band her singing perfectly accents and counterbalances the instruments, becoming another instrument in and of itself. I don’t know if it’s just because they’re set up in front of Windhand’s equipment on a smallish stage, but tonight the arrangement of the band mirrors their close-knit sound. Jillian belts it out from between the guitarist and the drum set. It doesn’t feel claustrophobic; on the contrary it presents the band as a united front and gives a visual expression to their sonic cohesiveness. Even Sean Hur’s acid-soaked synth, an instrument that it’s easy to overdo with a range that’s apt to blow through the rest of the mix, hits your ear as a part of this perfectly balanced psych band.
They rip their way through “Heavy Blanket” and “Demons” from their sophomore album Valley of the Snake. Johnny Scarps kicks into high gear with the chugging chords of “Killer” set against the steady thrum of Lake Muir’s bass. This song is one of my favorite earworms on Planetary Space Child. “Killer” is anthemic as hell without veering into the vapid territory of stadium rock. I have to admit that I found myself frustrated with the crowd at this point. My home in Humboldt County is notorious for catatonic crowds but I’ve come to expect more from bay area audiences. Not much headbanging, not much movement at all. My fist is the only one raised in the air during the chorus, my voice the only one in the audience shouting “killer!” It doesn’t faze Ruby the Hatchet – they deliver the song with all its furious guts intact. “Symphony of the Night” follows with its meditative somnambulance, then “Vast Acid,” another of my favorites from Valley of the Snake. Barely 40 minutes have passed when Ruby the Hatchet announce that the next song is their last one of the night. When a band starts their set on time (early, even, kicking off at 8:15pm) you can’t blame them for a short set but a few boos come out of the crowd in what is probably the only positive way to be booed by your audience. They end the night with a blasting rendition of “Gemini,” another infectious groove from Planetary Space Child. This song was written to be played at top volume while ripping down the highway at top speed. Although a bit short, Ruby the Hatchet’s bombastic set melted my face off and perfectly set the stage for what was to come.
After a short break the lights dim back down and Windhand glides onto the stage. The heady psych crunch of Ruby the Hatchet is replaced by the lumbering armageddon of Windhand’s downtuned guitar. It’s pointless to compare the two bands on the bill tonight. It’s not apples and oranges, it’s more like the poisonous peach from Labyrinth and an avalanche of overripe peaches.
Garrett Morris’ guitar crashes out of the speakers with all the weight and force of a lahar as they open with “Amaranth,” a track from the split Windhand put out with Cough in 2013. The drums thunder in, the bass explodes behind them, and Dorthia Cottrell stalks to the center of the stage like a caged cat. If it were possible for a landslide to be a lullaby at the same time, that would be the cataclysmic sound of Windhand.
Where Ruby the Hatchet wrapped the audience in their spell, Windhand brazenly attacks in an all-out sonic assault. The familiar chords of “Orchard” swell from the wreckage of the previous song and the crowd finally lets loose a cheer worthy of tonight’s performance. From up in the balcony the sea of heads nodding as one in time to the music lends a cultish feel to the experience. Remember the Sabbath, keep it holy, and worship at the temple of doom.
Out of a wash of feedback the opening notes of “Forest Cloud” take form and Windhand descends into one of my favorite songs of the night. I’m unsure of the name of the song that follows “Forest Cloud” but I’m pretty sure it’s off of Grief’s Infernal Flower. I’ll admit – a lot of Windhand songs blur together for me. I mean that in a positive sense. I think their unity of sound is a strength of their music. It certainly works in their favor live as it gives their performance a sense of continuity and expands the setlist into a grand symphony with multiple movements rather than a night of individual songs sequenced together. Their sound is huge for only having four people on stage. Garrett’s guitar explodes out of the speakers like swamp gas erupting from the fetid waters of Dagobah. I feel Parker Chandler’s bass in my chest even more strongly than I hear it in my ears. The relentless heaviness of it evokes the sound of mountains being born more than just the simple low end of a rock band. If rain were heavy enough to break stone, Ryan Wolfe’s drumming would be the rainstorm that tore the world down. And cascading over it all – Dorthia’s dusky vocals cutting through the sonic deluge like the beam from a lighthouse cutting through fog.
Windhand calls it early as well, with the show ending well before 11pm. I don’t know if that was stipulated by the venue because it was on a Sunday night or something but the only possible complaint I could reach for was that the show was entirely too short.
After the show I was able to connect with Ruby the Hatchet for a brief interview. I want to extend a huge thank you to everyone in the band for taking the time to talk to me and for being so kind and welcoming. Check out the episode of sonic fanzine “Into the Void” below for our conversation. I wasn’t able to record an interview with Windhand but I want to thank the four of them for being so warm and friendly, and I want to give a special thank you to Garrett Morris for being so kind and going out of his way to track down everyone else in the band for me. They just finished recording a new album and you should keep an eye out for it this fall.
Easton Connell 
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