Late on Mother’s Day Sunday, May 11, a mother of a show blew through the Bug Jar doors in Rochester. Earth Tongue, traveling from New Zealand, were setting off on a Spring U.S. tour. With songs centering around Satan and demons, themes were more dark and demented. It may have been nearing bedtime but these were not your mother’s bedtime stories.
Earth Tongue is on tour behind their new album, Dungeon Vision, released back in February and produced by Ty Segall. Consisting of just Gussie Larkin on guitar and vocals and Ezra Simons on drums and vocals, they created a sound bigger than that of a duo. There were no loops or flashy inhuman playing, just raw power that blasted straight through your rib cage.
Larkin’s fuzzy low-end guitar riffs served simultaneously as guitar and bass. She frequently syncopated with Simons’ rhythms as did their yowling vocal harmonies. Minimizing the complexity maximized the intensity. The clear well-defined rhythms coaxed the crowd into a synchronized head-banging mass. The band, audience, air and walls all pulsating in union.
The set list spanned their decade-long career, only sprinkling in a few of their newer tunes, like “Harvester” and “Demon Cam” which warned: “Never enter the castle grounds after dark hits.” Older songs like the meandering and psychedelic “Sit Next to Satan” advised: “…he will never let you down, evil evolving, we are powerless to it.” Exactly what mother always told you. Cap that off with the primal screams of “Sentient Sediment,” which they announced was only played for crowds they liked. Now that really is something mom would say.
Pink Fuzz, from Denver, a trio that featured two members from the same mother, opened the show. Siblings John and LuLu Demitro on guitar and bass, joined by Forrest Raup on drums, zoomed through a set of heavy rapid-fire power trio fare. John matched his superb playing with true rock star showmanship, bending, shaking, kicking, crouching into every possible playing position, from the stage, in the crowd, from his knees, on one leg. They were winning new fans with each passing tune on their first visit to Rochester.
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