Let’s be upfront, shall we? I know diddly squat about any kind of heavy/hard music. If you’d like proof, I can tell you that the first hard/heavy music I listened to was Metallica. Not Metallica circa Kill’em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, Justice for All or the Black Album, but Metallica circa Load. Are you laughing yet? Well prepare to laugh more. The next band even close to hard/heavy that I got into was the Blood Brothers, specifically Burn, Piano Island, Burn (though with them this seems like an anomaly as I wasn’t into their albums before or after that). I know, I know, they’re not metal, they’re hardcore, which are separate genres and worlds, but believe me, in my world, they’re on the same end of the spectrum. Beyond that, my exposure goes to the occasional Long Island hardcore band (thanks, Hofstra), and the occasional Sabbath/Led Zeppelin/stereotypical bands in this category that almost everyone likes. Oh, and Boris (but really only 2 songs on Flood, though I still haven’t heard Pink). It’s not that I don’t like music like this, it’s just that, more often than not, it doesn’t fall in to my agenda in terms of how I listen to music. I would explain to you why this is but, frankly, it’s not very interesting. To sum it up: I’m tired a lot.

If I’m going to go out of my way to listen to anything heard/heavy/fast, I’m going to do so in a live setting. Recorded, such music does very little for me, but live, it’s generally one of the more fun types of show to watch (along with hip-hop, which almostsortof explains the idea behind the Family Values Tour). Friend and fellow blogger Matt of Ear Farm recently went on tour with Brooklyn rockers Goes Cube. For a month, he filmed them for a documentary, and blogged about the adventure with nothing short of quasi-fan-girlish enthusiasm — and please, don’t take that negatively. If you ask me it’s a shame that so many of us lose so much of our ethusiasm as we grow older, so when I see it in someone older than 18, my curiosity is awakened. Goes Cube & Matt returned on Friday to play Mercury Lounge as the last stop of their journey, and after a month of reading so many wonderful things about this band from someone whose opinions I respect, there was no question about whether or not to attend.

I hate to use the word impressed, because it’s used over abundantly, especially in blogs, but, well, I was impressed. I didn’t have to be a metal/hard rock fan to appreciate Goes Cube. In the standards of damn fine live shows, Goes Cube more than held their own. Blazing through song after song (all numbered, no titles — 27 and 43 were my favorites), my eyes and ears were held in a trance. As someone with limited words in regards to the genre, I can only describe the sound as throw you against a wall rock. Not in the sense of anger, but in the sense of raw force and power. More akin to an earthquake or hurricane than a punch in the face. Equally wonderful was the fact that it was so easy to tell that these are three men who love the music they make, who love what they do. Call it trite if you like, but no show is complete without it.

Listening to the band recorded is an entirely different experience than seeing them live, so if you are unsure about my sentiments above after hearing these two mp3s, I can only recommend that you search out a live show to follow the path to Goes Cube enlightenment.

Goes Cube: “Goes Cube Song 27” (download)
Goes Cube: “Goes Cube Song 30” (download)

visit Goes Cube on MySpace

image courtesy Dominic Bartolini