Live Review: Mars Red Sky, Howling Giant and Black Lung in Brooklyn, NY, 12.06.24
Before Show
Hey, who wants to talk about the weather? I do. It’s fuggin’ cold. End of conversation.
Live on the scene! Sitting in the car. 43 years old.
Unless my plans change, this will be the last show I attend in 2024, and it’s one I arrive at (existentially at least) with some urgency. Mars Red Sky and Howling Giant were on tour together this past summer — this site co-presented the run — but the East Coast portion of the run got delayed and pushed to December. They started last night in Baltimore, I think, and thereby picked up Black Lung, also playing tonight.
But the reason behind the urgency is two albums: Mars Red Sky’s Dawn of the Dusk (review here) and Howling Giant’s Glass Future (review here). Both were among my favorite releases of 2023, and I mention that not just to drop the link like whoops could you click that thanks, but also to emphasize that now’s the time. Now’s the time to see these bands for these records that, seriously, I had on last week apropos of nothing. Just for enjoyment. I want to see these bands playing this material now. So I’m here.
And not to leave them out, 
only didn’t factor in from the start because they were added later. Their last album, Dark Waves (review here), came out on Heavy Psych Sounds in 2022 and was a big step in their progression and a first with a new lineup. They’re the only band on this bill I’ve never seen. They factor.
This will be my first time at TV Eye — which I’ve already learned today is about as far from my house as Philadelphia, if we’re counting by time in the car; circa two and a half hours — but I’ve been curious to see it and the occasion is right. I’ll go inside in a bit, and break it down by band from there, looking like an asshole all the while as I type on my phone.
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Black Lung
Haven’t they always had a progressive streak, and a bluesy streak, a thrashy riff here and there? Maybe, but this was the first time Black Lung took all that, rolled it into a ball of heavy darkpsych groove and threw it in the general direction of my head. Turns out I’d been looking forward to seeing them even more than I thought, not the least for the soul. On my head they’re a newish band, but the reality of them on stage — and actual time — says otherwise, even if this was a partially-remade lineup. Like their records, they were both emotionally demonstrative and Elias Schutzman is a master heavy drummer. They plugged an album to come next year and played a fair amount of new material, including the finale “Traveler,” of due breadth and movement. Maybe they’re shifting toward a darker, heavier kind of prog? Then “Traveler” brings out sun. So this is Black Lung. They are more their own thing now in my mind than they’ve ever been. It makes more sense in color, somehow. Note to future self to sit with that record when the time comes.
Howling Giant
What glee. I might’ve been the last one in the room to see Howling Giant this album cycle — they were in Brooklyn earlier this year with The Obsessed and Gozu; I had some valid excuse beyond stoned laziness — as they for sure were a known quantity in the room. And my goodness, they were electrifying. They launched with “Siren Song” and “Hawk in a Hurricane” one into the next, and that was super-fun and my neck will be sore tomorrow. They had some of what guitarist/vocalist Tom Polzine — who nails both guitar face and power stance because he does it from the heart, dammit — called ‘adventure’ in Sebastian Baltes’ bass cutting out and breaking a guitar string, but Baltes and drummer/backing vocalist Zach Wheeler hold down a duo low end stoner jam for just a gosh darn minute while Polzine went to grab a different guitar and the bass came back on quick both times, so there was no sense of tragedy about it. I really, really wanted to see Howling Giant, and they delivered more than I’d hoped for. “Glass Future” and “Sunken City” closed, and between, they played their newly-reissued-for-its-10th-anniversary debut EP in full — “Camel Crusher” still lands — and “Comet Rider” besides. They were a blast and there was still another band I really like playing after them. Why don’t I do this every day?
Mars Red Sky
Speaking of adventure. It was a definite shift in vibe to go from Howling Giant tearing into “Sunken City” to Mars Red Sky’s “Slow Attack,” which lives up to the billing of its title, but 30 seconds later, the Bordeaux trio had both leveled and melted the room, and atmosphere was not in short supply. With the night indeed was three-for-three on killer drummers, with MatGaz making the massive to tone of guitarist/vocalist Julien Pras and bassist/vocalist Jimmy Kinast — the two shared vocal duties much more than last time I saw them, and it worked well, most notably on “The Final Round” from Dawn of the Dusk, and even MatGaz had a mic for parts of “Apex III” — move, whether it was a roll or a turn to something more angular. “The Light Beyond” from 2014’s Stranded in Arcadia (discussed here, review here) was a highlight, as was “Maps of Inferno” with Pras doing his own vocal interpretation of the verses Helen Ferguson aka Queen of the Meadow sings on the record, and when they capped the set with “Strong Reflection” from their 2011 self-titled debut (review here, discussed here) there was just about nothing else I’d have asked of the night except perhaps the proverbial “one more song.” No encore. I think another show was rolling in after, so fair enough. I had two people come up to me and tell me I introduced them to the band. That was really nice to hear. I was just happy to see them since it had been so long, and as they hit into “Strong Reflection” I couldn’t help but remember that The Patient Mrs. saw them before I did (review here) in 2012. That made me smile. So did the entire set.
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The satnav took me back across Manhattan from the Midtown Tunnel. It seemed like a trap, and it was. I sat for an hour trying to get out of town via the Lincoln. No clue what was going on at the Holland or up at the Bridge. I just sat there, drank some water that I brought with me, and waited. It was not as relaxing as it sounds, but I don’t regret having carted myself to Brooklyn for this one. Now I’ve been to TV Eye — aesthetic is new American old-timey; it’ll wear in; the sound is great and the lighting isn’t exclusively terrible — and I knew this show was something I needed to see. I’ll continue to be glad I did.
Thanks for reading. More pics after the jump.
Black Lung
Howling Giant
Mars Red Sky
Right on, JJ! This was such a great bill that yes, was tied together by incredible drumming (and lovely, not-screamed vocals for that matter). I have no idea how Black Lung slipped under my radar – never listened to’em, never seen ’em. Well I heard them. Loud, and clear. I bought both CDs they had to sell afterward because GOTDAMN. Coming on like a bluesy more stoner-doom-oriented King Buffalo; that shit was 1000% up my alley. Had no idea they were from Baltimore, not far at all, but somehow I never caught a Philly gig – doesn’t seem like they come up a lot – I will be on the lookout for future dates, and that new record. Howling Giant are super fun, impossible not to smile through the duration of their set. When the stage banter includes “we’re doing it, we’re really doing it, you guys – we’re rocking and we’re rolling!” that’s when you know the band’s having, at the very least, the same amount of joy you’re experiencing. And finally seeing Mars Red Sky was definitely worth the bangover. A bit of triple-harmonized vocals, those low and slow space riffs, the quiet parts ebbing and the loud parts being given way to, emerging more like a mountain forming and less like a volcano exploding – yeah I’m a fan now. If I’d have brought more I’d have bought more, but I grabbed the first and latest and will have to work my way through the middle 3 CDs at some later point. As a side-note, unrelated, chatting with a local drummer in attendance at every Philly gig I get to essentially, was informed, Wolf of Wall Street style, by his 102nd gig this year that my same but 68th gig this year was in fact rookie numbers, and I gotta bump those numbers up. Ha!