Russian Circles + Helms Alee @ Lido, Berlin #YCmusic

Posted: May 4, 2015 by vals81 in Alternative Rock, Berlin, Lido, Post-Metal, Post-Rock
Tags: berlin live music, helms alee berlin live fotos, helms alee berlin live report review, helms alee live berlin lido, lido berlin, russian circles berlin live fotos, russian circles berlin live lido, russian circles berlin live report review

Helms Alee (8/10)
Start 20:00 / End 20:45
Helms Alee is an American band, formed in 2007 in Seattle, that released its third album “Sleepwalking Sailors” last year on Sargent House Records, same label of Russian Circles. Even if someone of the attendees probably didn´t know the band, Helms Alee took just a couple of riffs and drums rolls to get the attention and conquer the heart of the audience. Its interesting and quite original proposal, based on a hybrid merge of Sludge Metal and Shoegaze, was able to arise nothing but applauses and screams of approbation. The sound created by the trio was at the same time melodic and discordant, heavy and moody, enhanced by the alternation of screamed vocals from Ben and the dreamy vocals from Dana and Hozoji.
Great was the work made by Hozoji herself on drums, catalyzing the attention on her toms percussion that seemed to simulate a thunderstorm. In the end a great exhibition from an amazing band that deserves its headliner tour!

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Russian Circles (9/10)
Start 22:05 / End 22:35
The American Instrumental Heavy Rock band, Russian Circles, confirmed with the sold-out show at Lido in Berlin to be one of the most appreciated acts of this Rock style. Formed in 2004, the trio released its latest work “Memorial” in late 2013 on Sargent House Records and now is touring again in Europe. When the trio started playing in shadows with just some spot lights on the back, the audience was already warm and welcomed the band shouting out all its enthusiasm. Russian Circles didn’t spare itself and offered a great set, recreating and even expanding the sound layers of the albums with the use of loop pedals, effects pedals and sampling by the guitarist Mike Sullivan and the bassist Brian Cook, both supported by the masterful work of Dave Turncrantz on drums. The results was a live set that left many among the attendees with open-mouthed, with heavy bass lines, powerful drumming and complex guitars patterns. You must have nothing but infinite talent to play 90 minutes of Instrumental Rock without boring: each song played by Russian Circles was like a journey, a sort of story-telling that took each attendee’s hand to bring him to another parallel world, sometimes caressing gently his cheeks and sometimes shaking his head to let him reach the final catharsis. It wasn’t possible to ask more than this!