Into the Vein Their Enchantment Drained

Continuing the Thursday Night Live Special Edition -- Part 3:

HEALTH

This may go down as one of the best concert experiences I've ever had.

I first found out about HEALTH through Trent Reznor's announcement a year ago that the band would be supporting Nine Inch Nails on their "Lights in the Sky" tour. I checked them out . . . and fell in love.

The genre artists call them a Noise Rock band. I agree. They sport noise, but they have structure. Usually noise is improvisational by nature. These guys have a routine to their songs, exemplified by the fact that in the live show, all of the members except the drummer have a mountain of pedals that they press throughout the setlist. It's rehearsed. It is the same as their recordings.

They have short songs, most under three minutes. During these songs, they might go into four different tangents and sections. If I'm stripped of ideas, I go to HEALTH for inspiration. They hardly have vocals, and when they do, they're buried. Delayed and soft, I don't really care for the vocals. It's just another layer. And that's their intent.

I draw inspiration from their lack of vocals, and I put my own in.

Usually new ideas drawn from these vocal replacements lead to entirely new songs for me. The end of "In Hopes to Mend" was conceived after listening to a section in HEALTH's "Crimewave". I hear something relating to a rockabilly drawl, I'll come up with my own actual rockabilly song.

HEALTH is a hat full of random ideas written on carelessly folded pieces of paper that I draw from once in a while.

Upon entering 7th Street Entry, we first saw John, the bassist, putting out merch. My mouth got dry. "Crap, there he is!" I thought. I went up and talked to him, very awkwardly.

"Hey, how's it goin'?" I said, eyes averting his.

He said, "What's up?"

I looked at Schuyler, my companion for the evening. "You uh . . . you buyin' anything?"

He looked at my funny, like "You're acting strange."

He looked back at the merch table. "I might buy 'Get Color'."

"Yeah, me too."

John said, "Alright, that'll be twelve bucks. Let me get change," and he left with a smile.

"He smiled at me!" I thought. "Jesus, stop it!"

He came back and I had my composure. We took our CD's.

Later, I made jokes with the lead guitarist while waiting in line for the bathroom with him. I was talking to a musical hero while waiting to pee!

The show, though . . . spot on! The band is so intense . . .

The floor was packed with hipsters like you wouldn't believe, most likely wrought from Crystal Castle's version of "Crimewave", which never really did anything for me. HEALTH became known through their remixes, played on the hipster dance circuit. Standing in the crowd, I realized I was a hipster. In fact, Schuyler and I were both mistaken for HEALTH band members on two occasions by the crowd as we shuffled through. Here we have hipsters listening to music very un-hipstery. The band prides itself on being true in art, not being ironic or funny (Insane Clown Posse was playing in the Main Room, and many a joke was made at their expense from all the bands on the bill -- HEALTH's singer said "I know everyone's being ironic and funny, but I seriously walked into there just to see what it was like, and I've never seen a crowd as dumb and idiotic as that one right in there." And BOOM! they began the show). The people became un-ironic, an un-hipster thing to do. And they let go.

They began to go crazy in a Mash Pit, a culmination of moshing and dancing. Half the people in the crowd were dancing, whilst being thrown about by other, more violent hipsters. Everyone lost themselves into the music, and head banged to weird time signatures. It was amazing.

I realized this would be the crowd I'd be playing to in Patch. It was a coming of age, symbolic.

*"DIE SLOW" video*


They were so in tune to their new sound, so into each little step -- it's everything kick ass. Everyone ran to the merch booth once they were through. John, the bassist, couldn't keep up with his money handling.

I salute you, dear HEALTH. You've reached the top tier of my musical influences.

*Live on Pitchfork TV -- "ZOOTHORNS" and "CRIMEWAVE"*


HEALTH -- "Death+"