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Concert reviews Music

Neurosis’s Opera House show proves they’re one of the best bands of the past 25 years

NEUROSIS at the Opera House, Thursday, August 6. Rating: NNNNN


In early 2014, I saw one of the two shows that had two of my favourite ever bands double-headlining: Montreal post-rock experimentalists Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Oakland post-metal institutionNeurosis. Neurosis closed the show, with a stark, long, stripped-down set (not much in the way of fancy lighting or anything that could be considered stage theatrics). It had the sparseness of a Pere Ubu concert. At the time, I thought it was one of the best things I had ever seen.

Last night it was topped. Neurosis’s first proper Toronto show in nearly 20 years – the band rarely tours, which adds to all the mystique swirling around them – was, at the risk of sounding overly cheerful, just awesome. They were in full metal-show mode: high-contrast lighting, fog pouring off the stage (or maybe it was just billows of dope smoke shooting up from the front rows), guitars held aloft like the members were full-on rock stars. 

Neurosis wove through a dozen or so songs (including “hits” like Locust Star, The Doorway and closer Through Silver In Blood), each swelling in its epic intensity. Minimalist electronic instrumentation was filled in by guitars, then more guitars, then Jason Roeder’s hammering drums. The songs built, then broke, collapsing under their own heaviness. Guitarists Scott Kelly and Steve Von Till dropped to their knees, guitars all but burning.

I kept turning to my friends and saying embarrassing stuff like, “This is amazing” and “This is incredible” and “This is the best” and “oh maaaaaaaan.” The show solidified Neurosis’s rep as not only the foremost post-metal band going, but one of the best bands of the past 25 years.

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