Instant Decay Entertainment Art Memories Bar Chicago, Ill. March 16, 2007

Memories Bar resembled a hot, cramped closet in hell with a little stage taking up the back and a small area in front of it that could fit up to six moshers at a time. Obviously, this wasn’t the greatest venue for a metal show.

When Instant Decay took the stage, feedback even blared out of lead singer Matt Allison’s microphone for a few songs. He sang right through it and, eventually, his shrieking drowned any feedback out. I couldn’t understand any of the words, but this was thrash metal.

Allison raged about, throwing up his middle finger, leaping up and off the speakers, and screaming for everyone to bang their heads and come up closer to the stage. And, yeah, people did! He likely intimidated them. At times, he developed an insane gazed over look in his eyes like he was about to fall over and start speaking in tongues.

Miller, despite his scarred head, mostly concentrated on his bass, though he found the time to jump off stage and join in the little mosh pit. He’s probably solely responsible for keeping it up.

But if Allison was the id unleashed, then Miller was the ego that mediates between him and guitarist Bob Clayton who definitely was the superego.

Despite the feedback, Allison’s nigh-religious (or anti-religious?) conversion while singing, and Miller’s jumping around, Clayton never lost his cool. He marked out his own corner on the small stage and played through every song like he was off in his own world, but still meshed with everyone else.

In the background, Dan Mazliach hammered on his drums like he was beating a man to death with his drumsticks. Easily the most forceful member of Instant Decay, he throws off my whole id, ego, and superego analogy (though he does just by being the fourth band member), but that’s all right. It’s better than him disappearing behind his drum set and letting the singing and guitar playing overshadow him.

I suppose he could even work as the ego since he sits back and almost calmly drills onto his drums with an impressive stamina for such a sweaty, grungy bar whose very atmosphere was tiring. Then again, I just really want this analogy to work.

Instant Decay energized a mostly dead scene and re-energized it when it died back down between songs. Hopefully, they hit better venues from now on so they can concentrate on driving an already frenzied crowd over the edge. Come and see them next month when they again hit Chicago.

Write Comment
Name:	Guest
Title:
Comment:
Code:*

Powered by AkoComment 2.0!