September
2008 - grant's show review
 Lightning
Bolt at ATP Festival
Wow a 2 piece band… (with
no guitar!)
I switched from guitar to four strings at 15… so
that means I been playing bass for over 30 years… Yikes!
And thanks to Eastwood Guitars I have finally found an act
to aspire to… a two piece band out of Rhode Island.
When you hear the term “2 piece band” what do
you think? Guitar and piano or guitar and fiddle? Well change
your mind, and think BASS and DRUMS… think insane
high speed pulsation of craziness… think LIGHTNING
BOLT!
On September 19, I join Mike Robinson on
an Eastwood road
trip. Mike’s brother Peter came in
from San Diego and Eastwood’s photographer at large
Wally rounded out the car trip to the our New York destination,
the ATP Festival in the Catskills. The line up was amazing
and the players using Eastwoods was wild… but Lighting
Bolt’s
performance on the Saturday night was pure magic for me…
I checked out Lightning Bolt online prior to the show as
they peaked my interest. Video clips showed them playing
on the floor with hordes of people pushing and jumping. Blast
of noise and excitement. After Thurston Moore’s incredible
set on Friday night I was talking with a group of indie music
fans from San Fransico, and I told them I was pumped about
the Lightning Bolt set and they said they caught them in
a club in the spring and it was just nuts. So my four string
senses were tingling…
Saturday was filled with musical treats,
starting with the powerful assault APSE,
and on to the physodelic flash of Wooden
Shjlps and the techno
hooks of Sonic
Boom of Spectrum, all of these great acts
were wielding Eastwood guitars… but
the best was watching Shelac finish their set by unassemling
the drum kit and then pointing to stage left on the floor
to intro Lightning Bolt.
The hum of the main PA went quiet as Brian and Brian flicked
on their mismatched wall of amplification hell… the
crowd move towards the boys who were only protected by a
thin piece of yellow caution tape… plastic bottles
of Bud flew through the air with the first mega blast of
Brian Gibbson’s rapid fire of bass strings. The explosion
of Brian Gippendale’s drum were only challenged by
the sound of his crunched and distorted vocals squealing
through his $3.09 telephone mic inside his Halloween mask.
Did I mention his vocals came through his guitar amps.
The crowd pulsed and pushed like waves breaking in a hurricane… I
watched in amazement. Wally was so enthralled that he weaved
his bulking carcass to the frontline to capture this mayhem
face to face… he survived and made his way back with
digital images of what Lightning Bolt is all about… this
band is not for the timid.
After the set, I made my way through the sweating mass of
fans to say hello to my new hero of the bottom end. As I
pushed forward, what really amazed me was the
calm and friendliness of the once crazed fans… I complimented
Brian on the great set and was surprised by how a man of
such demon abilities to the gods of the lower end could be
such a nice quiet guy. He possess a calm and relaxed exterior
with the looks of one of your college buds on a rough Saturday
morning…
 We chatted on sound, style and basses… his sound
is more screech and intensity than bass, and he achieves
it though a complex mess of stomp boxes, amps and cabs and
banjo strings. On Sunday we meet again and we passed him
a Eastwood Hi-Flyer to tryout. He was impressed with the
retro Univox style and the solid short scale. Brian loves
this bass and has since switched some of the strings to banjos
and is getting ready to taking it into battle…
Before experiencing Lightning Bolt, a bass and a drummer
had only been the most important part of a band, the pocket… and
now I know if can be the band…
Do yourself a favour and catch one of their shows. It is
not for everyone, but every bass player should inhale a little
Lightning Bolt at least once…
Cheers from the pocket
Grant
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