Russian Circles

What's that, internet people?  You say you wanna hear something entirely instrumental this time?  Well okie-dokie, how's Russian Circles for you?  WHAT?!  You've never heard of Russian Circles?  Well I don't blame you, they fly pretty low under the radar, so let me tell you about them...

A three-piece rock (some would say metal) group based out of Chicago, Russian Circles got started in 2004, originally as just guitarist Mike Sullivan and bassist Colin DeKuiper.  The two had previously played together in a band called Dakota/Dakota, so they were already familiar with each other's playing styles.  Not long after they were joined by drummer Dave Turncrantz, and together they released their first album, Enter, in 2006. DeKuiper left the band shortly after the release and was replaced by Brian Cook.  They have released two albums since Cook took over on the low-end, Station in 2008 and Geneva in 2009.

My first experience with Russian Circles was just this past summer, when they were opening for High on Fire at The Royal Albert (one of my favourite bars as far as shows go).  Having seen High on Fire once before and knowing how good (and painfully loud) their live show is, I wasn't about to miss this one.  At the time I had never heard of Russian Circles, but my long time guitar playin' buddy showed me some of their stuff and I was hooked.  The mixture of hard-hitting metal and slower more melodic rock riffs keeps their songs fresh and interesting, and hardly ever are they repetitive nonsense like so many current songs are.  Also, being a drummer, I couldn't help but notice that Turncrantz was a MACHINE!  This guy is all over the place, playing a mile a minute, and he never misses a beat.  As I mentioned in my earlier post about The Black Keys, I don't think that speed has anything to do with how good a musician is, but being as tight as he is, playing as fast as he is, and doing the things he does is no small feat.

It was only about a month before the show that my long time guitar playin' buddy introduced me to Russian Circles. He had just gotten back from living in B.C. for almost two years, where a friend had introduced him to the band. I had told him about the upcoming High on Fire show, briefly mentioning the openers. Luckily he had his Macbook with him, and loaded up Geneva for me to check out.  After one listen, I was already more excited for Russian Circles than I was for High on Fire.  When I found out that the band was made up of only three people, I was interested to see how their live show translated, because most of their songs have intricately layered guitar parts and all sorts of weird sounds.  Well, thanks to effects/loop pedals (which Sullivan uses flawlessly), they were able to reproduce the sound almost to the tee.  Luckily for me, it was just the sound they reproduced, not the exact arrangements and feel of the songs.  I hate going to see a show and pretty much just hearing the recorded versions of the songs played really loud.   I'd way rather see/hear something original that I haven't heard before, and may never be heard again.

The show was mind boggling, by the way.  The Albert was packed with sweaty metal fans, most of whom were huge and smelt pretty bad.  Me being about 5'7” and freshly showered, I expected to stand in the back and just listen, but was able to force my way forward and ended up near the front.  I got knocked around a bit (especially during High on Fire...did I mention they are one of the heaviest bands ever?) but it was well worth it.  The music was so good that I didn't even notice the pain, just like the time I saw Rage Against the Machine and realized after the show that the blood stain on the guy in front of me had come from my face.  Good times!

Unfortunately, there are not many good quality videos of the group on YouTube, but I found a couple that are decent.  They aren't the songs I was hoping to post, but good enough.

Micah


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