There are two questions that often swirl around you while on tour: how much more filth is my disgusting body willing to tolerate, and what are the local bands gonna be like at the show tonight?
Even 10 years ago it wasn’t easy to find out who these people were; some were surprisingly great while others… let’s just say if anyone remembers a St. Louis metal band from around 2002 who had a guy that played an earth drum, please let me know.
But anyway, now it’s fairly easy to know exactly who will be sharing the stage and hanging out and crafting a transparent lie so you won’t sleep on their floor.
So, starting tomorrow, here are ten bands that we, Great Falls, are looking forward to seeing on tour:
Heiress (Seattle-LA shows)
Let’s just ignore the entire premise of this article immediately. Our old splitmates will be playing the first five shows, their oppressive, atmospheric, post-metalcore stylings making for one of our favorites at home and now in foreign locales like… Portland.
Drunk Dad (Portland show)
Writing degenerate noiserock that’s heavy on feedback is good enough for us, but Drunk Dad go further with an endless torrent of seismic riffs played with a surprising precision, and a relentless monster person on the drums.
LYFECOACH (Chico show)
Okay, so LYFECOACH may be terrible. It’s possible. I can’t find links to any of their music, but I’m optimistic as this is the new band from Sesar Sanchez, former guitarist and frontman of Teeph, a phenomenal proggy, noisecore three-piece. They never got their due, so listen to Teeph right now and pray like hell LYFECOACH is half as good.
Kowloon Walled City (Albany, which is pretty much San Francisco, show)
A fair amount of people love this band and many of them think maybe they broke up… but turns out they just don’t like playing many shows or recording much music over the last few years. We’re lucky for this rare treat, and if you somehow don’t know them, their visceral, mournful songs are worth anyone’s time.
Drainage (Fullerton, which is kind of LA, show)
No idea where these people came from, but this unpigeonholeable band is powerviolence and doom and surprisingly hooky rock and it shouldn’t really make sense but they manage to tie it together into something wholly satisfying. Maybe the band we’re most curious to see.
This White Light (The definitely-LA show)
Members of Pelican, Sunn O))), Engine Kid and Tattle Tale got together to create music that is a combination of at least three of those bands, with a dirgy, 90s post-hardcore vibe and the absolutely stunning vocals of Jen Wood. Just great shit.
Ugly (Tempe show)
Ex-Landmine Marathon and current members of Endorphins Lost and Transient are doing this crusty, harsh noise sludge thing that lives up to those others bands… just slower. Ugly may be a common band name, but it truly fits them, and much better than these guys.
Muscle Beach (Colorado Springs and Denver shows)
Do you think Muscle Beach is a bad band name? Well, fuck off because this three-piece is erratic, metal punk anarchy. We’ve had the pleasure of seeing them live already and getting two more earfuls from them will be a painful highlight.
Iceburn (Salt Lake City show)
Iceburn was a revolutionary hardcore/metal band back in the 90s and it makes no sense how we ended up opening for them. Main man Gentry Densley also does the incredible sludge/doom duo Eagle Twin, but he’s bringing back Iceburn for this show and goddamn, it rules. And just so you don’t think their heyday was like 25 years ago, this live video from 2016 shows they still very much do what you’d hope.
THROES (Boise show)
I believe this is another all-caps band, and a quintet that brings the kind of noisecore heft known from bands like Engineer and The Minor Times. This is endlessly punishing and pissed and we cannot wait to see what kind of damage they can do live.
