Two of the most enthralling live music pleasures are the full album play-through and the intimate smaller-than-usual venue show. Baroness provided both on Wednesday, as they performed their first 2 LPs (Red Album and Blue Record) in full under the low ceiling of Sleeping Village.
Hailing from Savannah, GA, Baroness boast an almost two-decade discography of color-coded studio albums spanning numerous genre experimentations, influenced by folk music and jazz as well as the expected Metallica and Melvins. Even in their earliest iterations, baroness approached Metal at the intersection of malleability and strict structure. Bringing progressive time signature changes and meaningfully meandering riffs into the sludge and muck of southern metal fore-bearers Crowbar and Eyehategod. Before their eventual deconstruction of what metal is believed to be, they made a name for themselves with two meticulously crafted records packed with prog-sludge power. Both Red Album and Blue Record were immediately critically acclaimed, both receiving Metal Album Of The Year honors from various publications and scores in the 8s from Pitchfork (who awarded them multiple Best New Music honors on following albums).
As Baroness walked on, the stage was backlit a deep red, signaling the beginning of Red Album with the methodical seven-minute album opener “Rays On Pinion,” directly into the following “The Birthing,” a track that closes with a speed/thrash riff that builds into an arena-metal worthy earworm lick. At the conclusion of this opening section frontman (and sole constant member) John Baizley flung his arms up in the air with an elated smile on his face and the sold out crowd heeded his gesture with overwhelming fanfare.
The joy felt by each band member was immediately clear, as John Baizley reveled in his origins and the three other members (none of whom were a part of the band during the original Red & Blue era) explored the world he had created all those years ago. Guitarist Gina Gleason (the most recent lineup addition, with the band since 2017) delivered a particularly heroic performance, bringing chops-to-spare to guitar pieces that already require astonishing ability, dancing through intricate interplay with Baizley with graceful intensity. The gentle timbre of her voice the perfect foil for John’s authoritarian bark. Drummer (since 2013) Sebastian Thomson, whose experience ranges from post-rock all the way to live techno and acid house, brings eclectic and bulletproof skill to Baroness’ unpredictable and kinetic drum parts. The drumming on Red and Blue showed early echoes of Baroness’ infatuation with jazz, something Thomson seems to acutely understand. Bassist (since 2013) Nick Jost provided a rumbling and textured technical bedrock for the symbiotic shredding of Gleason and Baizley, keeping all of the complex moving parts of the compositions consistent. After a flawless and fully engaged performance of Red Album, album closer “Grad,” sounded every bit as triumphant and climactic as one would expect, the central riff ringing through amplifiers as the crowd raised their voices in approval and gratitude.
Between sets, Baizley took a moment to give a sincere and effusive thank you to the audience, mentioning that his voice was hanging on by a thread (understandable on the second night of a back-to-back double set), but the slight hoarseness in his throat honestly gave it even more character, and the strain was fitting for the morose lyrics. Lyrically Baroness are sparse and intentional, delivering fragments of fables presented as shadowed tableau.
As the backlighting switched to a vivid blue, the second half of the mammoth performance began. The Blue Record standout moments are almost too numerous to count, with each track on the record consisting of multiple passages, all of which contain their own unique character. Moments of tenderness and ferocity feed off one another to create an all-encompassing album experience that felt vital and full. A pause came before the last two tracks, “The Gnashing,” and “Bullhead’s Lament,” the former of which contains one of the more blunt and effective opening lines in heavy metal history: “All of your fears are well-founded and true.” This two-track climax brought the entire experience home in ecstatic fashion, as Baizley’s silhouette stood there, backlit and bathed in blue hue.
Past the iridescent shredding and driving riffs, the most stunning sections of each set came in the moments of calm. Despite sterling technical ability and a propensity for both prog-y imagination and gnarled southern sludge, Baroness are arguably at their best in their solemn moments of quiet melody. Gleason’s solo acoustic performance of “Cockroach En Fleur” from Red Album and her gorgeous vocal duet with Baizley on the melodious hymn “Steel That Sleeps The Eye” from Blue Record stand out as contemplative highlights. The live performances really highlighted the compositional magnitude of each record. Hyper technical melodic solo-ing can sometimes feel disembodied and hollow on record, a recital rather than a revelation. But when done right, especially live, it can be downright religious. With Baroness at Sleeping Village, you could see the fingers on the strings. You could follow the sound from fingertips on a fretboard to notes hitting your eardrums. The constant guitar ballet coming off not as self-absorbed jam but as precise expression of well-developed ideas. Heavy metal, at its best, is a symphony of sounds both beautiful and ugly, brutal and ascendant. Baroness found it all buried back at their beginning, and unearthed it live.
