The Wake

Last night, I caught the band Dub Trio at the Varsity Theater. I don’t wish to wreck any reps here, but Dub Trio have a profound fondness for Celine Dion and listen to her Canadian warbles backstage to prepare for shows. Take that however you will, but that is the case.

Their sound is far from that of the pop diva, but I was not actually terribly surprised by the band’s fondness. Dub Trio is indeed a trio who perform dub music, of sorts, but the amount of sounds stuffed into the band’s repertoire is such that there could be some Titanic soundtrack stuck way in there. A quick description of the group would be “dub meets metal”, and that’s accurate enough to prepare listeners for what they’re getting into. The three white Brooklynites have a deft command of dub style and do their name justice. But this grasp of Jamaican roots music is filtered through a plethora of other styles, from stoner metal to hardcore punk to Explosions In The Sky-styled post-rock to Slayer thrash to… well, you probably get the idea.

Actually, the only way to truly get the idea is to hear the group. It’s one thing to say that they fuse a great number of styles, but their method is one that defies easy categorization. Songs like “Casting Out The Nines” are pretty heavily dub-influenced, downplaying heavy guitar in favor of deep bass and echo effects, but upon hearing the distorted rock megablast “Not For Nothing”, you’ll start to see the range the group has. Dub Trio’s strength is in how fluid they are with the multiple styles they incorporate. A lesser band attempting to create a dub/metal hybrid would simply play open chords on the offbeat and leave it at that. The Trio have a real handle on the core ideas of dub and are able to embed them into their heavy guitar-driven sound rather seamlessly.

This particular set was quite heavy, not to mention loud. Each song was a Molotov cocktail of musical ideas which exploded into the audience with massive riffs and crunchy distortion. Those not paying close attention might have missed all that was going on underneath the onslaught of metal coming from the stage. Often times the Trio would hit you with a heavy bout of guitar only to abruptly remove it and shift the focus to the bass and drums as echos faded the heavy portion away. Each song kept me on my toes, not sure what to expect but ready for anything. I wonder what King Tubby (the band’s top friend on MySpace) would’ve thought of these guys: They seem too loud and rock-infused for dubheads, seemingly aimed to bring dub to metalheads rather than the other way around. All the songs were instrumentals; the band’s only vocal tracks are on album with fellow Ipecac artist Mike Patton, who usurped the band for his 2006 Peeping Tom project. If that doesn’t clue you in to the band’s grasp of varying styles, note that all three are seasoned studio musicians who’ve worked with a wide variety of artists: Guitarist DP Holmes has appeared on Mos Def and Common albums, bassist Stu Brooks has recorded with 50 Cent, 2Pac, Slick Rick and Tony Yayo, and Joe Tomino was the touring drummer with The Fugees. And they all like to play stoner metal too. It makes sense that these guys would create a project with so many influences that manages to remain justifiably headbang quality. Few groups I’ve ever seen so skillfully string together genres like this, and their solid performance at the Varsity proved their powerful command of musical languages.

Openers Hardcore Crayons are a local ska group, which reminded me of high school a little more than I was comfortable with. There are some hardcore and metal influences in there, which are for more interesting to me than the ska elements. Their set was heavier than their MySpace initially led me to believe, with distortion far heavier than that of your average ska band. They reminded me somewhat of bands like The Plastic Constellations, ie a high school band that stayed together and continued on in the same vein, progressing as they went but still sounding very high school. As far as ska groups go, there was a lot more innovation in this than many other groups I’ve seen. Skimmed down to just guitar, bass and drums, there was no obnoxious horn solo to sit through, just lyrics about cats and tacos.

Marvelle, the first opening act, seemed very well suited to the ambiance of the Varsity Theater. The baroque-rock style fit beautifully among the plush chairs and dim lights. The band consists of violin, bass, drums and live art, and brought as heavy a sound as anything else that night. I remain quite impressed with the painter, beset with the task of completing a painting by the time the set is over. Her colorful landscape painting was thrown onto canvas as the haunting sounds of violin and heavy bass riffs churned underneath. You can read my full review of the band here, because I don’t feel like writing much else.