It was early on a Friday evening when Isis took the stage at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood. Most shows (especially heavy bands) go on later and don’t finish until at least last call. This night, however, Isis finished by eleven o’clock. Especially surprising given the relative length of their songs.Most Isis tunes tend to be at least six or seven minutes long with some extending well into the ten-minute mark. Slow simple dirges hesitantly give birth to wailing tidal waves of distortion. One might figure in a headlining spot on the bill, and with an especially early show time, the band would play a long, full set to best highlight the group’s slow musical expansiveness. Not so, as Isis played only seven songs clocking in at just under an hour. Even with a fantastic selection of music, the thrilled crowd seemed noticeably disappointed that there were no encores.
Still, the fifty minutes or so they did play were pure gold. Early in the set Isis brought in the creepy ambience and lightly plucked strings of “Wills Dissolve†from their most recent album Panopticon. The band then immediately began “So Did We†with bellowing vocals from guitar player/singer Aaron Turner. The group’s chemistry is tight; songs are executed with precision and finesse. No better was this displayed then in the epic ebb and tide of “In Fiction.†The song’s bombastic choruses and complex arrangements had the crowd bobbing their heads in unison, and still managed to gently switch over to the beautiful ending bassline melody without losing anyone.
Isis finished the show with the joyful energy and thrash of “Backlit†and a near twenty-five minute closing number with a prolonged outro. Overall, an amazingly impressive showing by a band growing into much bigger things, but hopefully in the future they play a far longer set.
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