Having a
three band lineup for the last show I went to, I was not sure how to handle the
reviews, and whom I would put where. Eventually it felt right to put Dads and
Pentimento last week. Still giving the headline a Friday spot puts Reggie and
the Full Effect on Valentine's Day, and it also felt right to pair them with
Torche, because love. I did not realize how difficult it would be to speak
coherently about Torche.
I have been
going through this sort of evolution about them. It started with Frank Iero
tweeting about how good Meanderthal was. I listened to "Meanderthal"
and didn't think too much about it, but then "Triumph of Venus" just
blew me away, like how are people not constantly talking about how amazing this
song is? Sometime later, I realized that "Triumph of Venus" is on the
Meanderthal album, so maybe he meant the album not the song. However, on
this round of listening, I get why he could say that about
"Meanderthal" the song.
At first I
felt like what I had was an intellectual appreciation for the band, without
really loving them, but it has become more emotional and I am more into them
now. Listening to Torche, I get amped up. I could almost say "They shred
and it melts my face." That doesn't sound exactly right for me to say,
though. I guess if someone else said it I wouldn't argue.
There were
things that were interesting about this round of listening. I went through in
chronological order. I had tended to think that they really one did one thing,
though they did that one thing better than anyone else. No, there are layers I
hadn't realized were there before.
The term
"sludge metal" suddenly made sense this time around. I still think of
Torche more as rock, but I can see how the other time would be applied. There
are reviews calling the most recent release, Harmonicraft, lighter, and
if that is all you listened to, you would not think it was light, but yeah, as
part of the entire oeuvre, it is. They seem to be having more fun in their
music videos too.
Speaking of
music videos, the video for "Solitary Traveler" has Mold-a-rama
figures in it, something which I had not been aware of before our trip to Chicago in October. In addition, I watched
an interview with them that took place at the Goose Island Beer Brewery, which
we learned about on our Chicago Architecture tour.
These are
minor things (and odd, because they are from Miami, so Chicago shouldn't be the key place), but
they are helpful. Knowing one thing can help other things fit in. I feel like I
don't know enough to write well and really definitively about Torche, but I
don't think it's so much that I haven't listened to them enough, but maybe that
I don't know enough about other music. Maybe after a few more years of
listening and writing, I will get it.
Maybe that
will coincide with a chance to see them live. Otherwise, the must hear list is
still topped by "Triumph of Venus", but let's add "U.F.O."
and "Kicking".
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