Quicksand – The Glass House – January 23, 2013

Quicksand
The Glass House
January 23, 2013

It still felt surreal seeing the first performance of Quicksand in fifteen years at the Revelation Records 25th Anniversary party at the Glass House in June of 2012. Even though their five song set had me drooling for more, one could never imagine that Quicksand would embark on a full scale reunion tour. Their inclusion on the bill at FYF Fest last year made it imperative that I witness a longer set. As expected, Quicksand were one of the highlights of FYF.

Since Quicksand bassist Sergio Vega also plays bass in the Deftones, I figured a full scale reunion tour was unlikely given that the Deftones just released their latest opus Koi No Yokan a few months ago and were busy touring but to my suprise Quicksand were able to route a nice tour of the States. They returned to the scene of their reunion with an astounding performance at the Glass House.

*Quicksand – The Glass House – Review 6/10/12
*Deftones – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre – Review 9/22/12

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Quicksand got down to business from the start and never released their tight grip on the audience. Sergio Vega pounded his bass for the opening notes of “Omission” as Walter Schreifels and Tom Capone added their detuned crunchy guitars to the mix with members of the audience chanting out the lyrics. Head banging ensued with the screaming harmonics and thunderous rapture of “Unfulfilled” as Alan Cage pummeled his drum kit as if he hadn't aged a bit in the past fifteen years.

“Fazer” served as my introduction to the band and I had flashbacks of detuning my guitar to Drop D and practicing the riff on my crappy amplifier and battered Fender Stratocaster.
“Brown Gargantuan” was monstrous with its steam roller pace and frequent false stops. Fury came in the form of “Lie And Wait” with its roller coaster pace and a careening guitar solo by Capone. Schreifels added some electronic glitches to “Delusional” momentarily taking the song into an ambient territory.

Vega's bass playing would shine once more for the descending notes of “Thorn In My Side” as it is one of my favorite tracks from Manic Compression. The hits just didn't stop as they shredded through “Dine Alone” and their stellar cover of The Smiths “How Soon Is Now?”. Schreifels thanked everyone for coming out to the show and emphasized how much fun he has had during this tour. One can only hope they actually get together to record another album.

Title Fight threw down a bruising left and right combination of their take on hardcore punk with slight tinges of metal. It was good to see Jamie Rhoden and Ned Russin trade off on lead vocals to mix things up, Definitely check out their latest album Floral Green released on Side One Dummy Records.

Critical Bias: My current claim to fame is that my review of their Glass House reunion show is listed on their Wikipedia page,

The Crowd: A lot of mid thirties guys and a contingent of younger hardcore Title Fight fans.

Overheard In The Crowd: Shouted out song requests from various enthusiastic members of the audience.

Random Notebook Dump: It was a busy night as I had to shoot Muse at the Staples Center and bolt down the 10 freeway to catch the tail end of Title Fight.

Setlist:
“Omission”
“Unfulfilled”
“Head To Wall”
“Fazer”
“Too Official”
“Freezing Process”
“Brown Gargantuan”
“Lie And Wait”
“Delusional”
“Divorce”
“Slip”
“Thorn In My Side”
“Blister”
“Dine Alone”
“How Soon Is Now?
“Shovel”
“Landmine Spring”
“Skinny (It's Overflowing)”
“Can Opener”

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