At last night’s show at Chop Suey, Slave Traitor opened with some midtempo-to-slow doomy metal. The next band, Middian continued on this theme, but with a hardcore bent and more forceful screaming. Oh, and because their music was relatively slow, it gave the drummer ample time to epically raise his arms straight up over his head before sending the sticks crashing down with each beat. I like that. But midtempo-to-slow doomy metal does not excite me.

Ah, but Kylesa: their own brand of sludgy metal/punk rock was excellent. Between the two guitarists and the bassist, they had like 20 effects pedals, all put to good use. And they had two drummers! At first I thought this was a bad sign: surely this would turn into some kind of drum-circle/jam-band situation. But no—it was amazing. It made their sound so much more full and intense. They’re all talented musicians, with the bassist hammering away up and down the entire neck of his bass, the two guitarists/vocalists screaming and soloing up a storm with complex fingerwork throughout, and the two drummers playing off each other with precision. One of the guitarists/vocalists, Laura Pleasants, destroyed all with her raspy, deep voice. They played a few new songs, which were great, and they closed with “an old Pink Floyd song.” I have no idea which song.

I left after Kylesa (sorry—I was tired, hungry, antsy), but I ran into The Stranger’s own Aaron Edge on my way out, and today he had this to say about the Hidden Hand’s performance:

For being mummies (well, the drummer was younger), those guys rocked out, and played flawlessly and loud, too! I am particularly stoked that Wino used Sunn amps, as I do, too.

So there you go.