To my knowledge, The Book of Knots hadn’t done a live show since July 2007, when they took the stage at Manhattan’s Gramercy Theatre with a slew of guests to support their then-new second album, Traineater. I was there and it was grand. From Jon Langford (The Mekons) to Carla Bozulich (Evangelista) to Aaron Lazar (The Giraffes), the stage was in constant flux around Book of Knots steady members Carla Kihlstedt (vocals, violin), Joel Hamilton (guitar), Tony Maimone (bass) and Matthias Bossi (drums), grounded only by the consistent brilliance of the woefully underdiscovered material, songs like “Midnight,” “Hands of Production” and “The Captain’s Cup” ringing out through the not-packed but thoroughly-appreciative room in what I to this day consider one of the best shows I’ve ever seen, hands down. And I’ve seen a few.

Joined by Faun Fables and Skeleton Key, what may indeed have been The Book of Knots‘ second gig in six years was a different kind of family affair. I walked into Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory — my first time there since it moved from its old location on Leonard St. in Manhattan — to find Faun Fables already on stage and a goodly portion through their set, the duo of Dawn McCarthy and Nils Frykdahl seamlessly blending mountain folk spirit with art rock theatricality — both wore gowns and McCarthy brought one of her young daughters on stage while the other slept in the audience — and a fittingly earthy vibe. I recognized Frykdahl‘s voice immediately from Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, of which Book of Knots‘ Kihlstedt and Bossi were also members, though other than his vocals, Faun Fables shares almost nothing in common with the sadly defunct, ultra-dark avant metal outfit.

Still, they were more than enjoyable in that look-at-those-very-talented-weirdos kind of way, McCarthy echoing her own yodels in the closer with striking believability, if not much setup for Skeleton Key, a long-running NY-native post-noise rock four-piece (with whom Bossi once played) with jagged riffs and a double-dose of percussion in a standard kit and secondary cymbals, canisters and other found items that were thoroughly banged on. Most of what they played came from their first LP in a decade, last year’s Gravity is the Enemy — the material striking a blend between New York City’s ’90s noise-punk lineage and the heavier end of indie, without fear of the occasional rockabilly twang or slide guitar interjection — but between percussionist Benjamin Clapp recruiting Kihlstedt and others to run through the crowd with big paper mache marshmallow heads on and returning later to take a French horn solo in a similar fashion — they were hardly short on the avant elements either. Actually, knowing almost nothing about the band going into their set, they were exciting to watch.

Bassist/vocalist/founder Erik Sanko announced toward the end of their time that his mother has passed away on Sunday, and that added further emotionality to the already-striking “Roses,” the closer from Gravity is the Enemy and penultimate inclusion before “Wide Open” from 1997’s Fantastic Spikes through Balloon. When they were finished and Sanko came back out to retrieve his bass, the crowd goaded them into one more song, so they did “Roost in Peace” from 2002’s Obtanium, clicking sticks to keep the rhythm under the folksy melody line and memorable chorus. They seemed glad for the chance to do the encore, even if somewhat surprised to have been asked.

In 2011, The Book of Knots made their debut on Ipecac with Garden of Fainting Stars (review here), their third album behind the aforementioned Traineater on Anti- and their 2004 self-titled debut, released by Texas imprint Arclight. It was the final installment in a vague thematic trilogy, the first record centering around the nautical, the second the rust belt, the third aerospace — sea, land and air, roughly — and whether or not they’ll follow it with further tales of industrial decay and cruelties both personal and at-large remains to be seen,  but they hardly sounded finished at Knitting Factory. With guitarist/backing vocalist Jon Evans and keyboardist/backing vocalist Michael Jinno, Kihlstedt, Bossi, Maimone and Hamilton took the stage and bled before the audience even realized they were starting into the dreary moodiness of “All this Nothing” from Garden of Fainting Stars.

“We are purveyors of that type of music,” Bossi announced on mic from behind his kit, and sure enough, the remainder of the night proved him right, through from their very beginnings, The Book of Knots have been a richly dynamic band, moving from these ambient, still-melodic droning sections of sparse atmospherics to intense, crushing distortion and correspondingly weighted rhythmic thud. Rules are minimal and followed as whims dictate, but the songs are cohesive, and in the case of this set, flowed well together. It was late when they got going, and some of the setlist was cut out to make room, but “Tugboat” from the first album and the Traineater title-track showcased excellently the sonic variety in The Book of Knots‘ approach, Maimone‘s steady low end, Evans and Hamilton‘s guitars, Jinno‘s keys and even Bossi‘s drums and vocals all coming into and out of focus along the way.

Kihlstedt, who also has an album forthcoming with Bossi under the duo guise of Rabbit Rabbit, did most of the singing, her voice smooth and bluesy over “Traineater” and no less suited to the more active Garden opener “Microgravity,” which followed the spoken idiosyncrasies of “Hands of Production” and foreshadowed some of the heft to come in the latter half of the set. Frykdahl returned for a vocal/guitar spot on “Moondust Must” — he was the night’s only guest — which even the band acknowledged would be the most upbeat sounding thing they’d play. It was, and though I never got to see Sleepytime Gorilla Museum during their day, I was thankful to get a glimpse at some of their expanded roots in Frykdahl and Kihlstedt‘s combined singing.

The high points were still to come, however. I had been glad to see “Pearl Harbor” on the setlist. I’ll confess it had been a while since I broke out the self-titled for a listen, so I didn’t remember precisely why I was glad to see it, but I knew that it being there was something to be happy about, and once they kicked into the slow, full-weight drudgery of the track’s second half, I immediately remembered the reason. Bossi pounded out a stomping but complex rhythm, Hamilton kept his I’m-a-producer’s cool while Evans punished his guitar with each strum on the other side of the stage, but it was Maimone‘s bass that left the greatest impression, each swell of the riff cycle resulting in a “voom” you could feel in your chest standing in front of the stage. It was even more satisfying for not having it so fresh in my memory, and a reminder of how much I lived with that self-titled when I first heard it, now nine years ago.

They followed and closed out with really the only song that possibly could have followed “Pearl Harbor,” “Salina” from Traineater, which never fails to send a shiver up my spine. It was a highlight in 2007 and remained one last night, and though it was late, I couldn’t help but hope for an encore of pretty much whatever they wanted to do — loud, quiet, whatever. No such luck on that, but “Salina” was more than one could ask for without being greedy, all six players locking into its build and noisy, deconstructed ending, Kihlstedt delivering one last highlight performance.

I already had a copy of Garden of Fainting Stars, and though I wanted to hit the merch table and see if there was anything to be had from the members of Book of Knots‘ other projects — be it Rabbit Rabbit, Two Foot Yard, Pere Ubu, etc. — it wasn’t to be, and I shuffled out of the Knitting Factory and back down the block to where I’d parked. It may not have been the same scale as six years ago, but for the chance to see this band as a band, almost entirely on their own, the show only confirmed for me how massively underappreciated The Book of Knots have been over the course of their time together. Not that I didn’t feel that way anyhow, but it’s nice to be proven right every now and again.

More pics after the jump. Thanks for reading.

Skeleton Key

The Book of Knots

Tags: Faun Fables, Garden of Fainting Stars, Ipecac Recordings, Skeleton Key, The Book of Knots, The Book of Knots Garden of Fainting Stars

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 16th, 2013 at 3:38 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.