LIGHTNING BOLT!!!

Brian C. in action. Photo © Scott Smallin.

Lightning Bolt is a band that hails from Providence, RI. Brian Chippendale plays drums and Brian Gibson plays bass, though he uses an array of pedal effects to make the bass sound more like a guitar–a guitar that, to quote the title of a Dweezil Zappa record, "...Wants To Eat Your Mama." Between just the two of them, the Brians have been on a short tour since March, laying waste to various West Coast cities, hamlets, and townships along the way. Monday night they played the LoBot Gallery here in Oakland, and yours truly was there to bear witness to the jolt of the BOLT.

As soon as I hit the packed venue, I immediately bee-lined it to the area where the band had set up their equipment. Lightning Bolt insist on playing the floor of any given venue. They will never play on the actual stage–truly, a band to seize proletariat hearts the world over. So I waited through 3 sorry opening acts before the guys came out to set up their instruments. I couldn't believe I was actually going see the band do their thing up close. The first and only other time I'd seen them, I was standing way in the back and hating it. It was still fun and I had a great time, but I knew that somehow I was missing out on something great up front. This time was different. I ended up standing right in front of the mild-mannered Brian G, who kindly asked the lot of us to please not step on his bass pedals during the show. Cool. I can handle that... I think. Well, we'll see how it goes. I lasted about two and a half songs before the swaying mass of humanity behind me reared back and forward, sending my skinny ass reeling towards the blaring amp in front of me. Luckily I was able to deftly step over the pedals AND not make close friends with the aforementioned Brian G and his bass in the process. I spent the rest of the set still very near the front, twisting and turning in a sea of entangled arms and legs and sweaty sweaty bodies. To the tall lanky white dude next to me making like a bobble head and slapping your long nappy dreads against the back of my head: please don't have lice, fleas and/or bed bugs. Please?

How to describe the music? It's rockin' and noisy. And LOUD AS ALL HELL. As Brian C. was wailing away behind the kit I was constantly reminded of that one bumper sticker, "When I Hit The Drum, You Shake The Booty". When these guys play, you move. The music takes over your whole being and you're bopping and shaking, you're jumping and swaying, you're throwing your hands up in the air and damned if you ain't waving 'em like you just don't care. I looked around and smiling face after smiling face stared right back at me. A Lightning Bolt show is a joyous experience to say the very least. I was grinning from ear to ear the whole time.



I found out what I'd missed out on the first time around. I got to see the energy of the music manifest in two very talented individuals: one, a relentless timekeeper constantly in motion, stuck on fast-forward, disguised in a goofy homemade mask with a mike in his mouth, spewing forth indecipherable lyrics to songs about who knows what (you just know they fucking rock, period). The other, a virtuoso on five-stringed bass, standing there dealing out riff after face-melting riff like it was no big deal, aloof and almost oblivious to the frenzied throng before him. And then all around me shiny happy people, an ocean of one, a multitude of love. This is a show I won't soon forget. I'm glad I went.

For more Lightning Bolt pics, go here.