The Bad Penny (beta)

The phrase “time is of the essence” originated during the construction of the first Transcontinental Railroad that connected rail networks in the eastern U.S. with the western half of the country. Time is also the essence of live performances by Brain Tourniquet, a D.C. band that is powerfully violent to the hardest of cores.

On Friday night, the trio played their first gig in the Pacific Northwest at Boise’s haven for hard and heavy music, the Shredder. In the spirit of Brain Tourniquet’s speedy set — during which they played about 20 songs in 20 minutes — what follows is a rapid-fire attempt to communicate what it’s like seeing them live.

remember at treefort 2019 when veil of maya ripped apart the shredder so thoroughly that their fans left with blood on their faces well tonight brain tourniquet from the district of columbia put on an almost equally memorable show except their fans left with smiles instead of smears which is a good thing now let’s turn to the beginning of the show when someone in the crowd threw the first punch all in good spirits of course before the first note had stopped ringing from the guitar held and shelled by frontman connor donegan who spent equal time shredding and screeching as he did orchestrating the krowd of kids to not only run around in circles and knock shoulders but actually kill each other if can you believe it yes he did say that in jest of course and some sensitive type who might’ve taken that rallying cry seriously maybe would’ve called the police but it certainly wasn’t going to be the shredder’s manager and bouncer because they too were in the crowd slamming and moshing if you can believe it which meant the bar and front door were both unattended now that is something you don’t see every day just like the intensity that brain tourniquet brought tonight causing the crowd to get riled up so much that they danced like ravenous zombies with hyper-speed but hungry for each other’s flesh and not that of actual human beings with brains brains brains it was oh so much fun to witness the witless ram their heads into one another and turn their minds into mush we kid of course just like brain tourniquet might’ve been kidding when they played an unrecognizable corrosion of conformity cover and in the end closed their with a song that lasted longer than all the other songs they played before it combined donegan said brain tourniquet hadn’t performed the closer live in more than a year and that made the show even more memorable to the non-mush-minded as did the fact that he managed to get most of the crowd to sweat through their shirts in just over a quarter-hour sorta like 100-meter-dash runners sweat after only running for about 10 seconds hey look even a d.c. vet like donegan considered the concert unforgettable because after he playfully spat venom during the set he promised brain tourniquet would return or rather retourn to boise which isn’t a farfetched concept so long as the band doesn’t implode like a star after its core passes the chandrasekhar limit these guys will create a lot of brutally fond memories for a lot of heavy music fans who will probably never get to see another band of that light-speed intensity in their lifetime or at least in their time as concertgoers ok time is up the end

This entry was posted on 07/01/2022 at 10:22 pm and is filed under Concert Reviews, Reviews with tags Brain Tourniquet, Shredder. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.