Boris
Trolling South by Southwest 2007
Reviewed by Austin Powell, Fri., March 23, 2007
![Funhouse](/imager/b/newfeature/458428/194b/music_phases-38587.jpeg)
Boris
Auditorium Shores, Saturday, March 17
Japan's Boris communicates through a universal language of drone and destruction. Whereas their Friday showcase at Spiros Amphitheatre was an epic, abstract one-song suite whose peaks and valleys were simultaneously draining and revelatory, at Auditorium Shores the following afternoon, the trio expressed the full spectrum of last year's brilliant Pink. With a calm, meditative manner, in front of her towering stack of Orange amplifiers, guitarist Wata ushered a tsunami of sound textures, beginning with the minimalist undertow of "Blackout" and "Woman on the Screen." Balancing both necks of his dual guitar heaven below, hell above Takeshi ripped through Pink's more rousing numbers, including the LP's namesake, "Electric," and "Pseudo-Bread," while Atsuo played the crowd as much as the drums, demanding a metallic roar in return for the apocalyptic gong. A fitting end to the band's brief tenure in the States, Boris departed with "Farewell," a shimmering and spiritual revelation expressed by weightless, shoegazed avant-metal. Nothing was lost in translation.