Click here to see these photos all big and bright.

The energy in their music is immeasurably huge and undeniably infectious. They make an insane racket, but move in unison as one fast-paced, detuned punk rock ‘n’ roll machine. They are, for my money, one of the best live acts on the road these days.

Most of their recent show, February 2, at the Hemlock Tavern in SF — which, of course, I was front and center at — was captured on video and posted, in three parts, by Colin:

Photos by yours truly, which you can see at full size over on Flickr…

At the Regency Ballroom in SF on Sunday September 12, SLEEP ran through nearly all of the seminal Holy Mountain album, and played some choice passages from Jerusalem / Dopesmoker — over two hours of music. I stood with my head on a swivel the whole time, nodding with the waves of sonic massiveness, controlled by the pulse of the riffs’ ebb and flow. The thick haze of weed smoke hanging in the room helped too. If there’s such a place as stoner metal heaven, this was it.

You can see my best photos from that night at full size over on Flickr (they look much better when viewed large), or scroll through the set here…

PS: For the gear nerds out there, Matt Pike was playing his High On Fire rig: custom First Act 9-string (see a video I shot of Matt talking to my friend Rob about this guitar in Austin, TX in March ’09) through a Marshall stack (I think it was the Kerry King Signature model) and a Soldano stack. Al Cisneros was on a Rickenbacker (I’m guessing a 4002), playing through two full Ampeg rigs (two SVT VR heads and two SVT 8×10 cabinets) and a full Marshall stack. Crushingly, devastatingly, deafeningly awesome.

PPS: Check out some great video of SLEEP’s Denver show (with Pike on a totally different guitar rig — Les Paul and Orange amps) over on Blabbermouth.net.

Incidentally, The Imps have been known to play a cover of the Buck Owens and Dwight Yoakam Tejano-infused California country classic “Streets of Bakersfield,” which they did last weekend, and it’s been ringing in my ears ever since. (“Hey you don’t know me but you don’t like me / say you care less how I feel / but how many of you that sit and judge me / ever walked the streets of Bakersfield.”) I wish I had the forethought to to take my field recorder and capture the Duffy’s show. I’ve had to make do with listening to the original on YouTube, which just isn’t feeding my craving for The Imps’ stripped-down, amped-up rock version. Dammit.

I took a handful of photos, though I didn’t get any shots of Ovipositor because I can’t play bass and take pictures at the same time. You can click over to the set on Flickr to see these photos all big an’ shit…

And here are my photos from that show, which aren’t all that great, but I didn’t feel like fighting my way through the B.O., stale weed stench and crusty neck beard funk to the front for a prime photography foothold…

And on a related side note, check out this jaw-droppingly dope New Zealand / Australia / Japan tour poster Aaron Horkey did for ISIS:

Oakland’s One In The Chamber will also be playing. So just shut up and go.

Good lookin’ out by Thuggy Fresh on this one.

I went to Austin, TX last month for the famed SXSW Interactive and Music conference. I put in a lot of work, had a lot of fun, ate a lot of pizza slices, drank a river a beer and didn’t get a whole lot of sleep for eight long days.

It’s been almost six weeks since it all went down, and my procrastination in posting about it has since turned into foggy memories and apathy, so I’ll spare you the longwinded, drawn out play-by-play of the whole thing. Here, instead, are a few highlights, and the best of the video and photos I shot while I was there…

- Hung out with, interviewed (see below) and then saw High On Fire. They killed it.

- Managed to connect with David Wm. Sims in Austin (he was in town visiting family), and, in a moment of extreme bass player nerdgasm, was able to introduce David to High On Fire bassist Jeff Matz.

- Caught up with my favorite Minneapolis trio, The Blind Shake (who Ovipositor played with at Thee Parkside in SF last year). They absolutely killed it.

- Stood in line for 35 minutes to get my Fader Fort wristband, then never went back. That’s 35 minutes I’ll never recover.

- Cured a slight case of homesickness at a Bay Area rap show with Mistah FAB and The Jacka. Freeway jumped up for one song with The Jacka. We left after The Pack played “Vans.”

- Saw Fat Mike do his “Cokie The Clown” routine. I can get down with the whole “so fucked up it’s funny” schtick, but I’ve never been much of a fan of NOFX or Fat Mike, so I was kind of at a loss for an opinion. I will say that I did laugh outloud when he served the whole front row, unbeknownst to them, piss-spiked tequila shots.

- Pumped to have caught Finale at the Audible Treats showcase. Dude is the real deal.

- Rolled with Serg Dun & DJ Stef to see Burlesque Design‘s Mike 2600 DJ at an office space. He’s a good DJ, and he was giving away cool mix CDs with even cooler stickers.

- Got red carpet access to see LEMMY: THE MOVIE, and really, really enjoyed it…especially since Lemmy himself was in the audience. (Seeing Motorhead with The Sword the next evening was icing on the cake.)

- Finally got a full look at TopSpin Media‘s software, a demo from company CEO Ian Rogers. All I can say to describe it… Next level game changer, or in other words, The Future.

- Saw J. Mascis and Fucked Up back-to-back on the last night, effectively ending the show on a very high note.

And now, the fun stuff: Videos and photos…

High On Fire at SXSW 2010

High On Fire’s Matt Pike on his First Act Custom 9-String Lola

High On Fire’s Jeff Matz on his First Act Delgada

The Blind Shake Live at SXSW 2010

Fucked Up Live at SXSW 2010

The night after I got back from SXSW, I got a text message from High On Fire bass player Jeff Matz — who I was fortunate to hang out with in Austin a few weeks ago, before their SXSW show — letting me know that his other band, bass-and-drums duo Omens Of Awe, was playing their inaugural show at The Stork Club in Oakland.

I was wrecked from SXSW, but The Stork is about five minutes from my house, I think Jeff is a monster bass player and a really nice guy, and Ovipositor drummer Mark Pino and I have fiddled around a bit with heavy bass-and-drums duo stuff on the side, so I thought I should check it out. I’m glad I did.

As a bass player with an appreciation for minimalism, I’m always interested in how other players fill sonic space without the aid of traditional melodic instruments like guitar or keys. Some players do it with effects and loops; others do it through playing technique, approaching the bass as more of a chordal instrument, expanding the sonic palette by fattening up the notes and pushing sustain; and others do it by the sheer power of force, using a massive array of amplifiers to split and enhance the sound, or just make everything really fucking loud. Jeff sorta pulls from all three methods in Omens Of Awe.

Playing his black First Act Delgada — which has a big, fat, round P-Bass-y sound — through a Line 6 looper, an old orange Boss DS-1 distortion pedal, and a switch pedal, Jeff pushed the sound out to several amps: a beat up SVT 8×10 driven by an old Acoustic Pro head, and Marshall guitar heads powering Marshall 4×10 and Mesa Boogie 4×10 cabs. His approach to playing included lots of scalar madness, chordal accents, and massive single-note riffage to create a full arsenal of technique, and the results were pretty awesome. The songs were long and ran through a litany of changes, but they were lively and heavy, nothing dragged or lingered or droned. We only heard about five songs at this show, but they made up about 45 minutes of music, and every second of it was fully engaging. Omens Of Awe drummer Peijman is an absolute beast on the drum kit, but he’s not just an overactive basher, there’s a musicality in his playing, even at full-throttle, making it as much a part of the song structure as the bass. At times he simply punctuated the music, other times he was fully involved in the structure of the songs, playing with or around Jeff’s bass lines to add unanimity to some parts, counter dynamics and rhythmic shift to other parts. Anyway, they were dope, you should see ‘em if you can. Here’s why:

I took a buncha photos (you can click over to the set on Flickr to see ‘em all huge-ified), and I opted to not use a flash, which I probably should have because Jeff’s head is in constant swivel-mode (like any good metal bass player), so I couldn’t get clear shot of his face — but whatever, I think it works (and apparently they do too; one of these photos is currently the profile pic on the band’s MySpace page)…

Not so in the case of Them Crooked Vultures. Guitarist / singer Josh Homme (Kyuss, Queens Of The Stone Age), drummer Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), and guitarist Alain Johannes (session ace, producer) are anything but has-beens — in fact, it could be argued that they’re all at the top of the respective games right now — and bassist John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) is a straight up legend who would have to put in some serious downgrading work to sully his reputation as a consummate musician. From the sound of the music and the demeanor of the players on stage, this feels more like fun than anything else, like they might very well be doing it even if no was paying attention…which, of course, is certainly not the case, as evidenced by the hype around the record and the fact that their stop at the Fox in Oakland was a sold out show.

It’s always great to see Grohl playing drums; in fact, I think there should be a law that he can only play drums from now on, enough with the Foo already. Dude is a beast on the kit. His attack is like Animal from the Muppets, but there’s nothing funny about the dynamics of his power and style, it’s serious business. Homme is a great guitarist and songwriter, and backed by Johannes, has managed to pull off really interesting, extremely well executed guitar parts rich with inventive depth.

Jones is easily one of the most well rounded musicians I’ve ever witnessed. Not only did he play myriad basses throughout the show, but he played an electric organ — handling those songs’ bass parts on foot pedals — a guitar, and even a keytar. Plus, you know, he’s fucking John Paul Jones, the quiet yet unwavering foundation of Led Zeppelin. To see him play live, especially these days, is to see one of the greatest rock musicians of all time — a serious treat.

I snapped off about 100 photos from my vantage point on the second-tier of the floor area, and about 20 of them made the cut; as usual, you can click over the set on Flickr to see them in all their largeness:

Many thanks due to my ace homie Lydia for the hookup on tickets to this show.