I ventured out and across the newly reopened Bay Bridge on Monday night to catch Big Business at the Bottom Of The Hill in San Francisco. It was my fourth time seeing the bass-and-drums metal duo (who are now a trio, with guitarist Toshi Kasai from Altamont), and by far one of the best performances I’ve seen from them.
Local heroes Triclops opened (those guys get all the good gigs) and while I like their music a lot, I find the lead singer’s approach a bit annoying — too many vocal effects, and a weird affected stage presence that bothers me, though I can’t really explain why. Maybe it’s just me. But the band kicks out the fucking weird noisy jams with reckless abandon, and I can definitely get down with that.
I always enjoy seeing Big Business — I’ve been a fan of bass payer Jared Warren since he was in Karp and the mighty yet short-lived The Whip, and a fan of drummer Coady Willis since Murder City Devils — but this show reminded me that I prefer to catch them when they’re not opening for The Melvins. Don’t get me wrong, I love The Melvins, but when Big Business tours with them, I feel like their duo metal thing is too easily overshadowed by the fact that they’re half of The Melvins, like they don’t get their full due as their own band. For the record, Big Business wields more than enough rock power to anchor the headline position at a show, and they’ve proven that beyond question.
I was blown away (almost literally) by the sheer size of Jared’s bass rig (two 15″ speaker cabinets driven by a GK 800RB, topped by a Crate 2×12 and a Marshall 4×10 powered by a Sunn Beta Bass head, all stacked up in a giant square of air-pushing monstrosity), and by the unrepentant yet finessed fury that Coady unleashes on his drum kit. They played for over an hour, ran through a bunch of songs from all three albums, and didn’t disappoint.
The show was pretty amazing. Here are a buncha photos (you can click over to the set on Flickr to see the photos in all their glorious bigness)…