War Elephants, My Heart To Joy, Maneuvers, and Transit - 242 Main - 3/14

We went to see Maneuvers again, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the other bands were excellent as well.

The show started with War Elephants, a young instrumental band from Enosberg Falls that plays progressive music. They played a pretty solid set. They are good with meter changes, the drummer in particular.

Next up was My Heart To Joy At The Same Tone, from Kensington, Connecticut. They play music in the style of classic emo or screamo, and they can certainly do that well. They brought a ridiculous amount of amps, and rocked everybody's faces off for a while. Their closing song was really intense.

Maneuvers came next, and they played an awesome set as usual. This time, they brought out a couple of new songs, which are going to be on the upcoming full-length they are working on. Two of these songs, "Black Horse Pike" and "Mare Oceanum" are on their Myspace, so check them out.

I didn't get to see Transit, unfortunately. They are a Massachusetts independent hardcore band, and they sound a bit like Braid or Lifetime. If you're at all into that, check them out, they're pretty skilled.

So, another day, another great concert at 242 Main. Be on the watch for more good music.


War Elephants
My Heart To Joy At The Same Tone
Maneuvers
Transit

Cccome?, Maneuvers, and Amadis - 242 main - 1/28

We've mentioned Maneuvers and Amadis before, but not cccome?. We had run across them in our spidery interweb music quests, but the mp3s we found were lackluster and didn't seem promising.
Enter the live show.
The mandolin player cranked the gain and just shredded it to bits, with RATM style riffs interspersed between solos. One of the coolest, most original things I've seen here.
The vocalist used his voice like an instrument and his harmonica like a voice. He had a great stage presence too, like he was playing from another world.

Act 2 was the Maneuvers. They put on a stunning display of alt-punk power. Their songs have a complexity that breathes new life into their style, but remain incredibly catchy.
I purchased their new EP and highly recommend it, but definitely go see these guys play if you can- the recordings just cant capture the energy I saw last week.

Amadis played like it was the 70's all over again. Leather, shredding, and flying v's...
I wasn't able to attend their entire set, but what I did see was full metal. I gotta say, Vermont having an old school metal band is pretty awesome.

Myspaces-
Amadis
Cccome?
Maneuvers

Cynic

Cynic is a technical death metal band from Florida. They added the influence of jazz fusion to their metal sound. They also used dual vocalists, one with death grunts, one with a robotic-sounding voice produced by a vocoder. Their lyrics are about deep philosophical and religious topics. They recorded one album, Focus, in 1993. They broke up the next year. Some of their members were in other technical/progressive metal groups, such as Atheist, Gordian Knot, Pestilence, and Portal. In 2006, they reunited to tour Europe.

Recommended Albums:
Focus

Official Website
Official Myspace
Veil of Maya at Roadrunner Records
Veil of Maya live
The reunited Cynic play How Could I? live

Vitals

Vitals is a Vermont progressive post-rock band. Their music is all instrumental, and they intersperse rock aggression with ambient complexity. Their style is pretty unique, but it could be loosely compared to some of the bigger post-rock bands out there.

Recommended Albums:
The Legend That Was Earth

Official Website
Official Myspace
Their last.fm page has some free mp3s
At These Heights live
Terrifying Storms of Incredible Beauty live

The Cancer Conspiracy

The Cancer Conspiracy was a Burlington, Vermont instrumental prog band. The band was composed of veterans of the local music scene who wanted to try a new musical direction. Their music is jazz and math-rock influenced. It's really excellent stuff for any fans of progressive music. They broke up in 2003, and their members have gone on to participate in other good bands musical entities. In particular, Daryl Rabidoux went on to work for Strangeways Recording, who have produced some really high-quality music. Their label collapsed in 2004, leaving their final album in a state of copyright limbo. However, they have finally obtained the rights, and this album, Omega, should be released on January 29!

Recommended Albums:
The Audio Medium
Omega

Official Myspace
There are some mp3s up at their new label Radar
Their Epitonic page

Hammers of Misfortune

Hammers of Misfortune is an eclectic progressive metal band from San Francisco. They incorporate elements from many different styles of metal, and from folk. They've been around since the late 90s, and released three albums so far. Their first two albums generated a lot of buzz in the metal community, and they live up to the hype as well.

Recommended Albums:
The Bastard
The August Engine

Official Website
Official Myspace
A couple of songs are available on their old label, Tumult.
Their new label, Cruz Del Sur, has a preview for The Locust Years.
The Locust Years live
An Oath Sworn In Hell live

Behold... The Arctopus

Behold... The Arctopus
is a band at the forefront of experimental metal. Their particular brand of instrumental tech metal is heavily influenced by jazz and modern classical. Their tempos switch at whiplash speed, and the guitar parts are ridiculously intricate. Also, band member Colin Marston plays a very cool Warr guitar.

This music is not for everybody, but if you like extreme metal and you want to hear something that breaks boundaries, I recommend giving B...TA a listen.

Recommended Albums:
Skullgrid
Nano-Nucleonic Cyborg Summoning (reissue)

Exospacial Psionic Aura live
Alcoholocaust live
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/beholdthearctopus
Free tracks