Maserati, Sleepy Eyes Of Death Live Show Review

The Maserati and Sleepy Eyes Of Death billing was one of those interesting mashes. Two bands theoretically playing the same broad spectrum of music, but proving that genre tags really mean nothing. These two “post-rock” bands couldn’t be more different sounding at all.

The Sunset Tavern
Seattle, WA
2011 – 04/19

Sleepy Eyes Of Death

Local mostly-instrumental stalwarts Sleepy Eyes Of Death got the smoke machine running early, and often. Whereas some post-rock bands flirt with the electronic styles of synthesizers and such, Sleepy Eyes Of Death flat out bear hug the idea. The band played a balanced set off older material and material from last year’s fantastic Towards A Damaged Horizon. Sleepy Eyes Of Death play moody music, and the band does a great job of translating it live. The smoke billowed out from the stage, and blue and yellow lights shone and changed, adding to the overall intense atmosphere the band created. Although it would’ve been nice to see a bit more of the strobe effect going, when employed, it was flat out visually destructive and coincided with the highest crescendo of the whole set. Sleepy Eyes Of Death play the soundtrack for the best sci-fi film never created, but watching them live is getting one step closer to that film’s realization.

Maserati

Georgia-based quartet Maserati were up next. To showcase the major differences in style, the all-instrumental band let the smoke clear, took down the lights, and ruthlessly and meticulously rattled off all the tracks from its latest release Pyramid Of The Sun. After Jerry Fuchs tragic death, the key for Maserati to work was finding a proper replacement. Luckily the band did, tapping Zombi’s A.E. Paterra, who is just as much of a well-oiled machine as Fuchs was. Paterra led the charge on the krautrock-influenced instrumental grooves that Maserati lay into. Unfortunately, for whatever reason the Seattle Gods deemed, the crowd was mainly complacent — hardly moving an inch for the fantastic buildups of the title track “Pyramid Of The Sun” or the relentless dance groove driving of “We Got The System To Fight The System.” But just like the band’s namesake, Maserati didn’t skip a beat and jammed away, leaving the crowd in the dust.

We Got the System to Fight the System by MAXIMUM CHERRY