Pinebender w/ Retribution Gospel Choir and Artsy Golfer at the Empty Bottle

I have been to a lot of shows over the years. Hundreds and hundreds. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a band that played as loud as Pinebender did on Friday night. My goodness. For some silly reason, I did not wear earplugs for either of the opening acts, who were somewhat loud in their own right. Expecting a louder set from Pinebender, I popped them in, but everything sounded twice as loud from that point on anyway. I seriously thought the bricks might start falling off the walls. Their slow, fuzzy drone shook the building, and all three band members were clearly enjoying the hell out of themselves. I don’t know how they were doing this with just two guitars and a drum kit. Various members of the audience were air guitaring – I saw at least three which has to be some sort of Empty Bottle record. An air drummer was also spotted as well as some sort of near Riverdance hop-stepping. My only explanation for this is that the extended roar coming from the stage overpowered the audience and made some of them go a bit wacky. To be honest, I was kind of feeling it myself. It was almost like being on drugs. I missed a good deal of Artsy Golfer, but they sounded good. Retribution Gospel Choir’s sound was kind of all over the place. I don’t know if they’re trying to find themselves or that’s what they’re going for. Either way, it worked. They sang a lot of harmonies and all were pretty much on point. I don’t know much about them beyond some sort of Low affiliation, but I’d be up for checking them out again. The thing I’ll always remember about the night was Pinebender’s power and the fact that all three of ‘em will surely be deaf by age 40.